Branch support

The dolphin mystique. Throughout the ages, an enduring mystique has developed around dolphins. Even today some people continue to impute dolphins with mystical abilities such as extra-sensory perception and, in alternative medicine circles, special healing powers. An entire industry in ‘dolphinassisted therapy’ has been founded on the idea that dolphins have the capacity to heal illnesses through the use of their sonar or by touch. There is no scientific support for any of these outlandish claims. But our appreciation of dolphins does not need to depend on their having supernatural powers. What we know about dolphin cognition from scientific research is immensely more exciting than any myths could be. Scientific research continues to add to our factual understanding of dolphins as highly intelligent, complex and communicative animals that are very different but intriguingly similar to ourselves.