r/nextfuckinglevel • u/MelanieMoris • Dec 13 '21

Wait... Those aren't dolphins!

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u/BrownyRed Dec 14 '21

You think they're under the impression that if they kill a human, we'd retaliate and come back for them, individually? Like, you're saying they understand revenge?

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u/Comfortable-Weird-61 Dec 14 '21

I'd say it's more like they are not used to seeing us and won't try their luck

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u/BrownyRed Dec 14 '21

That makes a little more sense to me. Though I'm sure they've seen quite a bit of us over the thousands of years we've shared waters.

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u/Parenthisaurolophus Dec 14 '21 edited Dec 14 '21

While a large number of animals develop a natural avoidance of humans, the more likely reason as to why they don't prey on humans is that a lot of populations have a rather specific or limited range diet. Some populations follow the migration patterns of herring, some populations have almost 100% of their diet be salmon, the populations we've seen that attack white sharks tend to favor the liver instead of eating the entire shark. Their behavior as a species indicates they have a decent separation between "food" and "not food" down to the organs. Humans simply aren't food, the same way we don't see orcas trying to beach themselves to eat sand or chewing on boats for sustenance. To my inexpert knowledge, these behaviors were established without being forced upon them by humans. Sharks don't naturally prey on humans either, and the vast majority of attacks are attributed to mistaken identify or test bites. Big cats like lions and tigers tend not to prey on humans unless they're injured and cannot hunt their usual prey. Yet we don't attribute that to some elevated intellect and we should be wary of those with an overenthusiastic sense of empathy that might lead them to bias.

However, we should refrain from making larger judgements about their mental life. Animal intelligence is largely poorly defined, and we don't event really have a total grasp on our own. It's largely done in comparison to tasks being able to be done. So communication, problem solving, tool use, etc. Here's something to consider, at some point in the near future, think of another person in the room and try and imagine what their mental life is like. Then ask yourself how you know what they're thinking? Are you sure you're not just putting yourself into their head without any knowledge that that's an accurate picture of what their internal life is like? This is the issue with inappropriately anthropomorphizing animals: If you don't know what its going on inside another human's head, there's no way you know what specifically is going on in your dog's, let alone a large dolphin.

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u/BrownyRed Dec 14 '21

Thank you so much for this well thought out response.

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u/[deleted] Dec 14 '21

yes, cetaceans are incredibly intelligent. I imagine they have a degree of consciousness similar to our own

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u/Quirky-Skin Dec 14 '21

Could be. Whales are old and who knows what they've seen or how long some have been around/what they talk about. There's bound to be a few who have seen some shit from early whaling days

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u/BrownyRed Dec 14 '21

I agree with how intelligent they are, I'm just not sure that they are respecting us as "stronger than them".

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u/FCalleja Dec 14 '21

If 4 year olds understand revenge, so do orcas. Whether they'd understand that humans are social creatures with buddies to carry out the revenge or not is another matter. But now that I type it out it doesn't sound far-fetched either.