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
Deliberate intoxication in the animal kingdom is a highly interesting topic, and touches on other topics like sentience and consciousness as well. There are lots of animals that *appear to us* to enjoy temporarily changing their consciousness by willfully ingesting chemical compounds that do the trick. Sometimes it’s even associated with a biological “reward”, like the lemurs who bite centipedes in order to stress them out so they’ll secrete a chemical that the lemur will then spread all over its body to act as a natural insect repellent. This chemical also seems to affect the lemurs in a psychoactive way, so the lemurs appear to be chasing the “high” more than the evolutionary advantage the use of insect repellents would bestow.
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