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MARATHON, Florida Keys – Do big-nosed dolphins work together to complete and complete tasks?
"Yes," says a study by marine mammal researchers at the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys.
The project, which lasted almost a year, reveals that dolphins cooperate to perform a task together.
The research, conducted in collaboration with a scientist from the University of Western Australia, investigated pairs of dolphins swimming across a Florida Keys lagoon to reach and press black buttons under the water. water. The buttons were connected to a computer located above the surface to record the actions and time difference when both dolphins pressed the buttons.
"We wanted to see if dolphins could actively cooperate," said Dr. Kelly Jaakkola (YAH'-ko-lah), the DRC's director of research. "The game was that the dolphins had to cross the lagoon and press the buttons simultaneously … precisely in a second of a second. "
In some tests, the dolphins were sent together, noted Jaakkola. In other cases, the sending of a partner was delayed. The other would wait, so that both of them simultaneously pressed their buttons.
"The dolphins were not content to pass this test, they were great," she said. "In the end, the time difference between button presses was only 370 milliseconds.
"It's about a third of a second," added Jaakkola. "This kind of precision shows that they did not just cooperate … but that they actively coordinated in a very precise way to synchronize their behavior. "
What we call "behavioral timing", as shown by the bottlenose dolphins in the wild when coordinating their bathing or feeding, is probably a general cognitive ability they can apply to many activities, Jaakkola said. .
DRC researchers are also investigating whether dolphins use vocal signals or other means to coordinate their actions.
The results of the study were published in an organic research journal of the Royal Society, a UK-based scientific academy.
Online
Bottlenose dolphins can understand the role of their partner in a cooperative task.
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