I know it’s a fun story that dolphins pass pufferfish or something and the venom gets them “high” but I wonder if this is accurate. This seems like a cute urban legend more than genuine animal psychology. Or am I wrong? Is it scientifically verified somehow that dolphins have the cognitive ability to deliberately abuse drugs and get high socially?
In: Biology
Abusing drugs requires little cognitive ability, and that’s not me slamming addicts or anything. It’s super common in mammals and birds, and there’s very solid evidence they are doing it deliberately, going out of their way to seek out mind altering substances. It taps into basic learning and reward, so there’s no reason to think it requires higher cognition, either. Dolphins 100% are smart enough for it and more. They aren’t nearly as nice as people seem to think, but they are every bit as smart as people think (if not more) and highly social. No one really questions it because given what we know about other animals and what we observe them doing, it’s the best possible explanation.
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