February 06, 2005

Dolphin's making vortex rings of air for fun. Young dolphins Tinkerbell and Maui make rings of vortex air that hover in the water. They play with them, get excited about them, and one has taught the other how to do it. See additional photos here. It is truly quite amazing. The 'rings of air' look like silver and due to the vortex do NOT rise to the surface.
posted by killThisKid 19 years ago
  • Oh, I must add: this is from linkfilter.net. And: additionaly video of the dolphins interacting with the air rings, also via linkfilter.
  • Really lovely, and those videos were great. Thanks for posting this.
  • Thanks for that klllThisKid - great link! (And thanks for the link to linkfilter.net. I never knew about it 'til today).
  • )))!!! Wonderful lonks.
  • =links
  • Yes, I lubs your lonks! And I for one welcome our dolphin ... Ah, heck, you know what I mean: ANYBODY BUT BUSH! (Hey, they're cute, friendly, smart, and they can blow bubbles without being cued!)
  • these bubble rings are very cool, but i'm not convinced they're "art". i'm also not convinced that it's useful to categorize the behavior of other species in terms of human concepts or ideas. why can't the rings just be something that dolphins do?
  • Damn it all to hell! Wait til they get their flippers on some rayguns! We're hooped, I tell you. Actually the link I really fear is "Cats Learning To Drive; Now Pointing At Us And Laughing"
  • I'd complain about the grammar error in the first word of the post, but with creative interpretation it disappears! So that's nice.
  • I don't understand why it's useless to categorize the behaviour of other species in terms of human concepts or ideas. (and no, not a misunderstanding. I have a background in psych) Since the existence of a mind is pretty much unknowable, and therefore besides the point, scientifically, it might do well to point out that Skinnerian behaviourism doesn't make those assumptions about humans, either. Nor did we when considering certain groups in the past (Natives, blacks, etc -- wasn't drawing, painting, carving just things they did?) The same thing? No. How close is it to the same thing? We have no idea. I watched a documentary on Britain's A.I. race yesterday. If one of these primitive robots painted a picture, I'd be reluctant to call it art. I'd be a lot less reluctant if a monkey did.
  • I took my little daughter to see the sea for the first time a couple of days ago. We saw four dolphins. I love them. So beautiful!
  • Share the fun. Clever dolphins!