Who the hell could "thumbs down" this??? This is one of the best TED Talks I've ever seen, I am going to watch all of Ms. Reiss's TED Talks and see if I can find anything else she's in! I've always been fascinated by cetaceans, especially dolphins & orca (yeah, I know, they're dolphins, too). I can definitely recommend for anyone to read Death at Seaworld, it isn't just only about the death of Dawn Brancheau, it is a mini-bio & career-bio of Dr. Naomi Rose, loads of her research on Orca behaviour that she did for 5 years in order to write her dissertation, and loads of pure factual information about cetaceans, both in the wild and in captivity. These are INCREDIBLY SMART, sentient beings, with emotions & strong social ties and family ties. I cannot believe that anyone could heartlessly slaughter them... I truly think that if more Japanese people KNEW about what was happening in Taiji they would want to stop it (in the movie The Cove that Ms. Reiss references in this talk, the producers talked to lots of Japanese people on the street, asking if they knew or would support it, and most were shocked that it was happening at all & said they would never support it. As well a lot of meat was mis-labeled on purpose). And if not, then the other countries around the world need to stop all trade with Japan until they do stop murdering them. Maybe if they couldn't get anything imported it would have to stop? I also think we need to STOP keeping these creatures in captivity (which would put a stop to the live captures in Taiji, but not the slaughters, unfortunately, but it would be a start!), they are essentially in prison. They might look happy because of their mouth shape, but they're not smiling. They need to figure out a roomier place for the behaviour research as shown in this -- that's an awfully small pool they're in.

dolphin in the mirror is one of my favorite books!!! everyone should read it!

I can't wait to learn about dolphin culture

this is amazing info...

I've seen a documentary on TV that uses Diana Reiss' research material (and also Kathleen M Dudzinski's work - and others as well), but I can't find that one on the web. The docu has a ton of beautiful pictures and also covers other intelligent & empathic animals (most particularly the Elephant, and the Great Apes). This TED Talk by Diana however covers some of the very interesting parts, including the mirror recognition test. I would concede since quite some time that the more we understand intelligence, empathy and social behavior in many of the 'higher' animals, the more we should abstain from killing these animals. There is, first of all, a much wider need for mankind to be more respectful in our dealings with all life on the planet - but what better place to start changing our ways when we stand face to face with empathy in a stunning, intelligent animal - even if they are what Diana Reiss calls "non-terrestrials" (Dolphins live in the sea after all). Also pay attention to where she mentions Aristotle and other Greeks, who already did this observation a few thousands of years earlier - that something remarkable was going on with dolphins.

I'm not an animal right activist, this however goes to show that they are pretty intelligent and shouldn't be kept in aquatic zoo's or have to suffer military grade sonar.

0:45 the gravity comment is completely false. lol

"Terrestrial" means relating to the Earth, so dolphins are in fact terrestrial, not non-terrestrial as per her opening statement. Unless you're talking about the dolphins fromm Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. So long and thanks for all the fish!

dpnt agree with this study in captivity, lovely woman but cmon stop keeping dolphins in captivity