Yes, dolphins are intelligent marine mammals.
Most researchers and biologists will agree that dolphins are extremely intelligent and are well-known in aquatic shows for their ability to learn complex tricks and perform fantastic acrobat feats with the instruction of a good trainer.
Even the fans can instruct the dolphins and will play with them regularly.
At marine parks, dolphins can be seen jumping through hoops, leaping 25 feet into the sky, interacting directly with the audience, asking for food, and responding to commands made by their trainers.
In the military, dolphins have been used to find humans underwater and detect explosives due to their ability to learn and master complicated instructions and tasks from their trainers.
From movies to the military, dolphins have been trained by humans for decades.
Regarding intelligence and self-awareness, various tests appear to show that dolphins are capable of self-awareness, a characteristic that very few species possess.
Aside from dolphins, apes, and elephants also appear to exhibit self-awareness.
Scientists have been curious about the cognitive abilities of dolphins and their ability to understand and solve complex problems.
Many tests have been performed to evaluate a dolphin’s overall intelligence.
Eventually, scientists hope to be able to one day communicate directly with dolphins through technology.
Because dolphins have such a complex language, some scientists and marine biologists believe that if we can decrypt their language, we can communicate directly with them in their language.
While this sounds like science fiction, with advances in technology and neuroscience, this may soon become a reality.
The ability to talk to dolphins would mean a massive step towards building relationships with other species, even beyond our relationships with apes.
In the wild, dolphins have very complex social structures in which they communicate with each other about nearby food, alert one another of danger and express a desire to mate, among many other things.
Each dolphin has its unique frequency, allowing them to know which one is communicating.
This becomes especially useful in large pods where a mother dolphin may not always have a clear view of her children or when family members end up separated.
By detecting differences in vocal frequencies, mother dolphins can know where their child is even when they are in a large pod.
Dolphins can be remarkably family oriented; in some pods, as many as four generations of family members may be seen swimming together.
When it comes to hunting, dolphins can often work together in team-oriented groups using complex hunting methods to detect, direct, trick, and scare their prey into cleverly devised traps that allow them to capture their game while avoiding or minimizing risk to their health.
The social structure of dolphins has been compared to that of elephants and humans, and their closely knit social structure has even been said to resemble a culture.