HIl! The dolphin post was impressive - animals ARE more amazing than we think. National Geographic March 2008 edition has a section entitled Minds of Their Own. The article covers animal cognitive research on some of the most intelligent in different species they could find. A dog with 340 word vocabulary and counting and who can link photographs to objects, a raven that solves problems and creates and uses tools, a parrot that teaches other birds how to speak and even corrects their errors, an octopus that uses rocks to block the door to den and amuses itself shooting water at plastic bottles and lab personnel, and on and on and on. It is well worth looking up and reading. Have a great day. Carol
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-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Powers powers_w@FRONTIER.NET
To: CSGNET@LISTSERV.ILLINOIS.EDU
Sent: Thu, 9 Oct 2008 11:30 am
Subject: Re: FW: Dolphin Rings
Hi, Bara –
I’m copying your amazing post to CSGnet, because it’s the most complex example of animals (other than us) acting on the world to control their experiences of it that I’ve ever seen. Toward the end, one dolphin creates a ring, and (unless I lost track) a different dolphin rolls lazily over and floats carefully through the ring.
We should seriously think about establishing communication with this species.
Thanks much!
Love,
Dad
At 10:04 AM 10/9/2008 -0600, you wrote:
This is truly amazing and beautiful to watch… Iâve never seen this before have you?
*barb
The attached video is of dolphins playing with silver colored rings which
they have the ability to make under water to play with. It isn’t known how
they learn this, or if it’s an inbred ability.
As if by magic the dolphin does a quick flip of its head and a silver ring
appears in front of its pointed beak. The ring is a solid, donut shaped
bubble about 2-ft across, yet it doesn’t rise to the surface of the water!
It stands upright in the water like a magic doorway to an unseen dimension.
The dolphin then pulls a small silver donut from the larger one. Looking at
the twisting ring for one last time a bite is taken from it, causing the
small ring to collapse into a thousands of tiny bubbles which head upward
towards the water’s surface.
After a few moments the dolphin creates another ring to play with. There
also seems to be a separate mechanism for producing small rings, which a
dolphin can accomplish by a quick flip of its head.
An explanation of how dolphins make these silver rings is that they are
air-core vortex rings’. Invisible, spinning vortices in the water are
generated from the tip of a dolphin’s dorsal fin when it is moving rapidly
and turning.
When dolphins break the line, the ends are drawn together into a closed ring
The higher velocity fluid around the core of the vortex is at a lower
pressure than the fluid circulating farther away. Air is injected into the
rings via bubbles released from the dolphin’s blowhole. The energy of the
water vortex is enough to keep the bubbles from rising for a reasonably few
seconds of play time.
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