Dolphin Reading Test

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	The ability to read is not just limited to humans. The trainers at Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences in Honduras have trained their dolphins to read two-dimensional symbols as commands. In this video, watch as the pupil, a dolphin named Cedana, puts her reading skills to the test.
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Watch as a dolphin's reading ability is put to the test. 

Correspondent

<div class="rich-text">Watch as a dolphin's reading ability is put to the test. </div>

Nature

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 Dolphin Reading Test
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 Posted: August 19, 2010



 Doug Hamilton (narrating):
 
 Dolphin intelligence is expressed and tested in many different ways. Recently, at the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences in Honduras trainer Teri Bolton has been working on a skill that we humans clearly associate with intelligence, reading.



 Doug Hamilton:
 
 So who's this?



 Teri Bolton:
 
 This is Cedana. This is her daughter Pigeon.



 Doug Hamilton:
 
 And the baby doesn't want to leave mama?



 Teri Bolton:
 
 No the baby, she's not independent enough yet. She's only seven months old, so yeah, she is going to be floating around behind mama a little bit.



 Narrator:
 
 Teri and the trainer, Kenley, have gotten some of their dolphins to understand a command by reading it as a two dimensional picture written on a board.



 Doug Hamilton:
 
 So the waves on this symbolâ¦



 Teri Bolton:
 
 Mean speed run, swim fast.



 Narrator:
 
 Clearly, she got that one right. Cedana has twelve symbols in her vocabulary so far. Next up, Jump!



 Doug Hamilton:
 
 When she screams like that, what is she doing?



 Teri Bolton:
 
 She's responding to his bridge saying correct, and she's saying "Yes I am. You expected less?"



 Narrator:
 
 Just when all was going so well, we noticed that Pigeon had gotten a little bored and swam away. So how will that affect Cedana's reading test? That is not a tail walk.



 Doug Hamilton:
 
 She got that one wrong.



 Narrator:
 
 Kenley gives Cendana the command to go find her daughter.



 Teri Bolton:
 
 When the babies swim off in areas of the lagoon that the moms don't want them to be in or they get a little bit too far away the moms will sometimes do a behavior that enables them to see where their babies are at because that's their primary focus is their baby.



 Narrator:
 
 It seems that like, as with any working mom, Cedana has to juggle the competing demands of pleasing her boss and, ultimately, taking care of her kid.



 Doug Hamilton:
 
 So we've got the baby back.



 Teri Bolton:
 
 Mom is feeling comfortable.



 Doug Hamilton:
 
 Let's do it again.



 Teri Bolton:
 
 Yep.



 Teri Bolton:
 
 Yeah, good girl!



 Doug Hamilton:
 
 So she got it right this time.



 Teri Bolton:
 
 She got it right this time. And look where Pigeon is, Pigeon is occupied where she can see her.
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