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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009
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Whales and Dolphins May Deserve 'Personhood' Status

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(Newser) – Whales and dolphins have highly evolved social structures and may deserve a “personhood” status similar to that being considered for members of the great ape family, Wired reports. The emotional and social areas of the cetacean brain are “enormously complex,” notes one researcher, “and in many species are “even more highly elaborated than in the human brain.”

The use of sound among whales and dolphins is particularly advanced, and researchers say there may be “something like grammar, syntax, even language” in the complex songs and codas passed between generations and individuals. The sonar use of sound has interesting social implications as well. “There’s nowhere to hide,” notes a researcher. “They can use sound to form an image of each other’s insides—whether you’re pregnant, hungry, sick.”

A blue whale in Timor waters. The government of East Timor says it plans to establish a national park to protect a motherload of dolphins and whales recently discovered off its coast.
A blue whale in Timor waters. The government of East Timor says it plans to establish a national park to protect a motherload of dolphins and whales recently discovered off its coast.   (AP Photo/NRETAS, Kiki Dethmers, HO)
A pod of killer whales are seen in Carroll Inlet, Alaska, June 14, 2009.
A pod of killer whales are seen in Carroll Inlet, Alaska, June 14, 2009.   (AP Photo/Rhonda Bolling)
IBottlenose dolphin swim alongside a fishing boat in the Gulf of Mexico miles off the coast of Panama City, Fla., June 18, 2009.
IBottlenose dolphin swim alongside a fishing boat in the Gulf of Mexico miles off the coast of Panama City, Fla., June 18, 2009.   (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)
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Based on what we know, I’d guess that cetacean culture is intermediate between humans and chimpanzees. Not in material culture, but in most other respects.
- Hal Whitehead, Dalhousie University biologist

In a three-dimensional habitat, it’s probably much harder to say something is mine, or yours, whether it’s a piece of food or a potential mate.
- Hal Whitehead, Dalhousie University biologist

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12 comments
VIEWING:
 
riffran
Jun 26, 09 3:24 AM CDT
reminds me of some sci-fi novel I read.....a scientist would be listening to whales sound, and say they must be searching for food....and the whales are watching the scientist and saying .."The attendent bipedal hominid is capable of only rudimentary mathmatical nuances in regards to hyperdimensional transient monopolar magnetism"....lol...or something like that....I just wish "they" would stop hunting all those wonderous cetaceans Reply
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+8
anchower
Jun 26, 09 3:27 AM CDT
Can't wait to hear what the reactionaries have to say about this. They don't even want to acknowledge that gays and coloreds are people. Reply
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+2
IN RESPONSE:
hamsammichs
Jun 26, 09 7:04 AM CDT
I don't think they will have to concede that whales and dolphins are people... because their not. Just smart as hell animals. Pigs and Octopi are just as smart and complex but aren't as cuddly as chimps and dolphins so we don't even bother.
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-3
IN RESPONSE:
Amber
Jun 26, 09 7:14 AM CDT
"coloreds" ??? Methinks the simular traits to racist words draws near.....
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+2
IN RESPONSE:
anchower
Jun 26, 09 9:08 PM CDT
Ever hear of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People? Anyway, you're one to suggest that I'm racist. Shut the f--- up.
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+1

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