Althouse: When you play with dolphins, the dolphin decides when playtime is over.

July 27, 2009

When you play with dolphins, the dolphin decides when playtime is over.

Not so cute then, is it?

26 comments:

Joaquin said...: Hey Moko! No means.........NO!; 7/27/09, 1:38 PM
Anonymous said...: Flipper? I hardly even know her.; 7/27/09, 1:44 PM
Ron said...: So, dolphins are like coeds then?; 7/27/09, 1:46 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Now we know why the dolphin doesn't have any dolphin friends. It likes to play... until death!; 7/27/09, 1:51 PM
Big Mike said...: Dolphins are an alien intelligence, and not somebody's pet.; 7/27/09, 2:09 PM
traditionalguy said...: Is this the post about the dolphin-sex in Saudi Arabia? Horny dolphins are mammals with a true bone in place of needing a Viagra Rx. But why would dolphins feel the need to need to boast in Saudi Arabia?; 7/27/09, 2:29 PM
Joe said...: Dolphins are one of those animals that have a much better reputation amongst the public than amongst the people who actually deal with them. Dolphins are mean, stupid creatures.; 7/27/09, 2:30 PM
dix said...: One occasionally reads stories about swimmers being saved by dolphins. You rarely hear the reverse as there is no one, you know, to report it.; 7/27/09, 2:38 PM
John Burgess said...: Dolphin rape isn't so cute, either...; 7/27/09, 2:43 PM
Anonymous said...: Perhaps one day folks will learn to simply enjoy creatures from a vantage point other than that crafted by some version of an amusement park, all the while thinking they are actually "communing with nature."; 7/27/09, 2:49 PM
Wince said...: Fa Love Pa!

The worst movie ever made, The Day of the Dolphin, was about dolphins trained to carry bombs on their backs which would then attach to the presidential yacht and blow the Big Guy up. These were nice, lovable dolphins who could talk, by the way, though they certainly made a mistake by spending all their time talking to George C. Scott — that is, unless they wanted to order a highball or maybe a Sloe Gin Fizz. That movie came out in 1974 and no one who ever saw it is likely to have forgotten it in all its unimaginable awfulness...

For the record, the inimitable exchange in the film went like this:

Dolphin: Fa love Pa!

George C. Scott: Pa loves you too, Fa.

- John Podhoretz, NRO; 7/27/09, 3:02 PM
Michael said...: My very favorite part of modern animal/human encounters that turn bad is when the human utters something along the lines of: "She said the dolphin had meant no harm." Right. The chimp that ate the woman's face meant no harm, the bear that ate the bear man and his girlfriend up in Alaska meant no harm, the cougar that killed and ate the runner in Colorado meant no harm. Right. No problem. Just try and be a little bit nicer to the animals and all this will change. Go ahead, swim with the dolphins. They love it.; 7/27/09, 3:09 PM
John Burgess said...: Let them 'swim with the candiru' and their opinions might change... quickly.; 7/27/09, 4:19 PM
Michael said...: John Burgess: I think you have it exactly!! Come, swim with the candiru.; 7/27/09, 4:31 PM
Paddy O said...: Don't know why this has gives a bad impression of dolphins. The dolphin, apparently, likes the company and to play. It's not being mean, even nature mean. It's just being a dolphin who doesn't quite understand how a person could get tired in the water.

Of course animals have their own worlds and aren't cute/cuddly, always turning on and off for our amusement. Sometimes they get mean, and sometimes they can't empathize, and sometimes they get all crabby and lash out. That's not to say they're mean or stupid or especially not relatable to humans.

Because there are a whole lot of humans who are often nice, then lash out, or want to play when others want to stop, or assert themselves over others in their crowd. It's called socialized behavior. And it has wonderful sides and it has rather dangerous sides--for whatever species. The woman, certainly, got the better end of the deal than a lot of dolphins have had from our more "enlightened" species. Intelligent species have attitudes and they have distinct individuals with their own particular issues.

That dolphins have attitudes and personalities and wants and emotions and whatever that cause them to react unpredictably makes them a lot more like people--just not the part</a we really want to admit about ourselves.

I wonder why this dolphin is a dolphin loner? Is it like the penguin who keeps walking inland?
I wonder if this dolphin will remember this woman's face years from now.; 7/27/09, 5:35 PM
Fred4Pres said...: Fungi love tourists.

Ireland?; 7/27/09, 6:14 PM
Fred4Pres said...: I am positive dolphins are not stupid. I am not even sure it is fair to call them "mean" in an anthropomorphic sense. I am sure dolphins in captivity or in situations without interaction of other dolphins are very high maintenance.; 7/27/09, 6:18 PM
Joe said...: One interesting link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3323070/Killer-dolphins-baffle-marine-experts.html

Another:

http://www.governmentsecurity.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=22808

Of course dolphin lovers have a fit over these and proceed to give all the reasons why both articles are wrong, especially the latter, ignoring the fact that their example don't actually counter the science and the arguments being made.

(For example, everyone who has dealt with horses knows they are dumb as bricks, but you can still train them.); 7/27/09, 6:38 PM
Fred4Pres said...: I am not of that school of people who think dolphins are super intelligent beings, I suspect they are smart because they travel in packs and have to hunt cooperatively (similar to wolf packs). And probably about as intelligent as wolves (which are smarter than dogs). And whatever intelligence they have probably varies species to species (from what I have seen orcas and bottlenose dolphins are smarter than other whale, dolphin, and porpoise species).

And horses are dumb.; 7/27/09, 6:47 PM
Fred4Pres said...: There is a debate on how smart dolphins are.; 7/27/09, 6:49 PM
rcocean said...: Bad, bad dolphin.

All Dolphins learn in Dolphin school that Humans get tired and cold easily (unlike Dolphins)- obviously this Dolphin skipped class.

I feel sorry for the animals. Caught between the "Lets kill 'em all they're just animals" morons and the 'hey, they're just humans with fins (or fur)" goofballs.; 7/27/09, 7:50 PM
Laura(southernxyl) said...: The bear and the cougar were just doing what bears and cougars do. Ditto the stingray that killed Steve Irwin.

But I think the chimp that ate the woman's face meant harm.; 7/27/09, 9:02 PM
Anonymous said...: Once again, activists show their utter lack of true concern for their subjects.; 7/27/09, 9:05 PM
kentuckyliz said...: Horses aren't dumb. Once you understand their instincts, behavior patterns, and sensory systems, they become quite understandable from their perspective. I was a horse whisperer in my preteen and teen years, training adopted wild mustangs with horselike social behavior and gentling methods. I was a horse whisperer before it was cool, and before I even knew it was called that.; 7/27/09, 10:42 PM
Fred4Pres said...: Sorry kentuckyliz for maligning your state's favorite four legged animal. I defer to your horse whispering skills. Although it seems to me that great horse trainers just understand the way horses act and respond to things and modify their own behavior, training and expectations to match those of the animal. Horses are, like most herding prey animals, at their core just worried somone is going to eat them.

I am starting to have real empathy to such animals.; 7/28/09, 7:55 AM
amba said...: My little sister, when she was 9 or so, swam with a captive dolphin in a small tank in Florida until the dolphin got an erection, at which point they yanked her out of the water.; 7/29/09, 3:14 AM