english.aljazeera.net

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA, August 18, 2006: Dolphins may have big brains, but a South African-based scientist says laboratory rats and even goldfish can outwit them. Paul Manger of Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand says the super-sized brains of dolphins are a function of being warm-blooded in a cold water environment and not a sign of intelligence. “We equate our big brain with intelligence. Over the years we have looked at these kinds of things and said the dolphins must be intelligent,” he said. “The real flaw in this logic is that it suggests all brains are built the same… When you look at the structure of the dolphin brain, you see it is not built for complex information processing,” he said. A neuroethologist who looks at brain evolution, Manger’s views are sure to cause a stir among a public which has long associated dolphins with intelligence, emotion and other human-like qualities. “You put an animal in a box, even a lab rat or gerbil, and the first thing it wants to do is climb out of it. If you don’t put a lid on top of the bowl a goldfish it will eventually jump out to enlarge the environment it is living in,” he said. “But a dolphin will never do that. In the marine parks, the dividers to keep the dolphins apart are only a foot or two above the water between the different pools,” he said.

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