Dolphins
The list culminates with a mammal which many people wouldn’t have suspected of being intelligent more than chimpanzees, but the fact is that the cognitive skills of dolphins enable them to learn very effectively, to use their sensory skills, and to create so-called cognitive representations.
Dolphins can distinguish between language sequences, they have a good memory, observe themselves, distinguish between and match specific items with each other, understand symbolic drawings of different body parts, and when another dolphin or human points at something with a gesture, the animal looks in the direction of that object. Moreover, dolphins would be able to use numbers.
It is known for sure that at least some species of dolphins use tools, e.g. individuals of Shark Bay (Australia) put sea sponges on their rostrum, most likely to avoid injuring their snout while searching for food near the sandy seafloor, and dolphins of the coasts of Mauretania often cooperate with fishers and drive fish into their nets.
We quite often hear about dolphin behaviors towards injured fellow dolphins or even humans, when dolphins want to offer selfless help.
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