THE TRANSMISSION OF ARBITRARY ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION BETWEEN BOTTLE-NOSE DOLPHINS,

An investigation was made of the capacity of a pair of bottle-nose dolphins to perform a cooperative task which required the acoustical transmission of information about an arbitrary visual event in the environment of one of the animals. Each animal was first trained to press one of two paddles, depending upon the state of a light signal. Next, while housed in adjacent enclosures, they were required to coordinate their actions in a fixed sequence and within fixed time limits. Then the light signal to the animal required to respond first was removed, and visual contact with the other animal and its light was eliminated. The pair continued to perform successfully as long as they were in acoustical contact and the light signal to the one animal was provided. Their performance success was found to depend directly upon the emission of pulse trains by the animal receiving the light signal, although it was also found to be indirectly connected with that animals emission of whistle signals. The specific nature of this dependency could not be determined. Author