Whales are people too
WIRED has an interesting article exploring the concept that Whales Might Be as Much Like People as Apes Are.
Chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos possess self-awareness, feelings and high-level cognitive powers. According to a steadily gathering body of research, so do whales and dolphins.
In fact, their capacities could be even more ancient than our own, dating to an evolutionary explosion in brain size that took place millions of years before the last common ancestor of the great apes existed.
…Most findings come from bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, sperm whales and humpback whales — the species that scientists have painstakingly studied for a few decades, and now continue their work with improved gene sequencing and song analysis tools. In these four species, scientists see considerable social complexity and individual distinction. They talk of whales and dolphins in terms of cultures and societies, and say cetaceans possess qualities of personhood. They say the same is likely true of other species, who simply haven’t been studied yet.
“It’s only due to our lack of knowledge that humans remain this exclusive species,” said Shane Gero, a Dalhousie University marine biologist. “We’re getting a lot of long-term studies in cetaceans, hitting multiple generations, and we’re finally able to get at these questions.” Though there’s still more evidence for primate than cetacean personhood, Gero said accumulating research “will start tipping the scales.
The photo is Vancouver Aquarium – Beluga Whale “Making contact” by David Ohmer
R.A.R. Clouston said,
September 26, 2009 at 4:22 pm
I respect and admire the work you are doing on behalf of whales and dolphins. In a similar vein, I submit that public interest and concern for these magnificent beings can be heightened even more by blending scientific fact with speculative fiction, thereby taking the public beneath the waves into a world where they could not otherwise venture. Please visit my website http://www.rarclouston.com or read my blog http://whaleanddolphintalk.blogspot.com/