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Diogenes of Babylon posted an update 5 years, 1 month ago
Sperm whales in 19th century shared ship attack information.
Whalers’ logbooks show rapid drop in strike rate in north Pacific due to changes in cetacean behaviour
“Using newly digitised logbooks detailing the hunting of sperm whales in the north Pacific, the authors discovered that within just a few years, the strike rate of the whalers’ harpoons fell by 58%. This simple fact leads to an astonishing conclusion: that information about what was happening to them was being collectively shared among the whales, who made vital changes to their behaviour. As their culture made fatal first contact with ours, they learned quickly from their mistakes.”
The Giza Forum (Legacy)
Closed Archive of The Old Forum
Do cetaceans have a sense of right and wrong? Yes. And religion? Perhaps.
“If culture exists in cetaceans, have they developed an equivalent moral sense of right and wrong? Yes, say the authors. Whales and dolphins observe rituals of the dead and exhibit grief. Could they, then, express spiritual sentiment, founded on values and belief – even a sense of religion? Perhaps. All this only underlines a pressing need to address the notion of non-human rights for such animals.”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/10/cultural-lives-of-whales-and-dolphins-hal-whitehead-luke-rendell-review