This Dolphin “Trick” Has Fascinated Scientists for Decades

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Dolphins are among the most intelligent mammals on the planet. Beyond their intelligence, dolphins are also capable of play and recreation. While they might not have smartphones to scroll social media, they have some rather inventive ways of amusing themselves, as seen in the video above.

Why Are Dolphins Making Rings?

Beyond the video above, dolphins have been noted to make rings as a matter of recreation for decades at this point. A 1996 article by Scientific American noted the creation of rings by dolphins by Project Delphis, a non-profit operating off the coast of Makapuu Beach.

While dolphins enjoy play, as noted by the researchers, they don’t always rely on toys to accomplish this. Sometimes, they’d blow intricate rings, a behavior that astonished researchers when demonstrated for the first time.

The dolphins in the video shown above are in captivity, playing around for crowds at SeaWorld Orlando. However, this behavior has been noted in captivity and the wild alike, making it a unique form of play for bottlenose dolphins.

How Do Dolphins Make Rings?

A bottlenose dolphin is capable of producing rather intricate and complicated shapes when using its blowhole. As noted in the previously mentioned article, researchers saw not just rings but also helices produced by a dolphin’s blowhole.

When excited or happy, dolphins generally expel bubbles from their blowhole. Think of it like a child taking a deep breath before letting out a shout of excitement. However, compared to the human nostril, there is a greater degree of control when blowing rings through a blowhole.

In a nutshell, a ring is formed by a quick puff of air. You can perform a similar trick underwater. As water rushes through the vortex created by the bubble, it creates the conditions necessary for a ring. However, this isn’t the only way that dolphins make rings. As seen in the above video, they can be blown horizontally. The general principle is the same, but bottlenose dolphins can use their tail fin to assist the flow of water through the vortex created by the bubble.

What Purpose Do These Rings Serve?

Ostensibly, there isn’t a real survival-oriented purpose when dolphins make rings. Instead, this is just a behavior intended for play and recreation. Dolphins are highly intelligent marine mammals, and they have recreational time just like you or me.

When observed in the wild, dolphins do more than just blow rings when playing with members of their pod. Researchers have seen extraordinary phenomena like the creation of corkscrews, utilizing the same sort of principles when creating a ring.

Simply put, these are just a method of play that has captivated scientists and researchers for decades. As noted in the research paper Bubble Ring Play of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncates): Implications for Cognition, bottlenose dolphins will playfully flip the orientation of rings, creating a game between two or more bottlenose dolphins.

Do Dolphins Learn This Behavior?

This is a learned behavior, at least when it comes to how dolphins make rings. Dolphins aren’t born with this talent innately, but rather it’s something they learn when observing their peers. In the aforementioned Scientific American article, several dolphins began practicing this technique with varying degrees of success.

One dolphin was capable of generating helices in addition to rings. However, other dolphins were only capable of making rings. Like anything you or I might do, it is something where practice makes perfect. The researchers behind Scientific American noted two dolphins, a pair of siblings, interacting. One learned to blow rings with ease, and her sibling watched intently and began practicing his own.

After a few months, the sibling began making his rings with varying levels of success. Eventually, they became uniform and precise, much like what his sibling was creating. As such, we can surmise that dolphins learn through example when taking on new behaviors, like how dolphins make rings.

Conclusion

The way dolphins make rings is a complex endeavor, but is akin to the way we play games with one another as children. We might not be born with the ability to whistle, snap, and so forth, but these are behaviors we can easily learn through observation and practice. The same holds true for how dolphins make rings. They go through the same process of constant practice and observation solely for the sake of amusement.