Dolphins Able to Mimic Humans Even When Blindfolded

Dolphins, like humans, are expert imitators, finding ways to sense out what the other party is doing even when their sight is blocked.

Led by researchers from the Dolphin Research Center in Grassy Key, Fla., the finding could offer potential clues as to why this behavior of copying another's actions ever evolved, the scientists report.

The team blindfolded a bottlenose dolphin named Tanner and instructed him to mimic the actions of a trainer. In all, more than a dozen actions already familiar to the dolphin were performed, including turning in circles and bobbing up and down. Each was tested twice at random both with and without a blindfold while researchers recorded echolocation sounds underwater.

The study was carried out via six sessions performed over a nine-day period.

Tanner, it turned out, was just as capable of imitating a human as he was a dolphin. Furthermore, with the use of echolocation, he was able to follow the trainer's lead whether or not he was blindfolded.

"He outsmarted us," Kelly Jaakkola, research director of the Dolphin Research Center, told the Associated Press.

While not involved in the study, Georgetown University's Janet Mann said she was not surprised by the results.

"Of course they would use their echolocation to get more information," the professor of biology and psychology said. "Dolphins have to solve problems all the time in the wild," including at night she said.

News of the study comes just days after a study demonstrating the dolphins' ability to recall former companions' calls even after 20 years apart.

The discovery, made by researchers from the University of Chicago, marks the longest ever social memory recorded for a non-human species, according to study lead Jason Bruck of the school's program in comparative human development, and was observed as researchers played recordings of old tank mates over loud speakers.

"When they hear a dolphin they know, they often quickly approached the speaker playing the recording," Bruck said in a press release. "At times they will hover around, whistle at it, try to get it to whistle back."

This behavior stood in sharp contrast, the researchers explained, to the apathetic demeanor adopted by the dolphins when played a recording of a strange dolphin.

Correction: The article previously attributed the University of Chicago as the lead researchers in the study regarding dolphins' ability to mimic the behavior of others. The school, however, was only involved in the second of the two studies discussed in this article.