Q: Do dolphins understand and/or experience human emotional reactions such as gratitude?
A: 
Those signs the Magic 8-ball just mentioned:
Massimo
@Rainmaker1973She didn’t just swim away: she came back with gifts.
After rescuers freed her calf from a fishing net, a mother dolphin began regularly leaving fresh fish on a dock as a touching “thank you” gesture.
In July 2025, a dolphin calf became entangled in fishing gear near a marina. A man named Tom and other local boat owners successfully freed the calf and reunited it with its distressed mother. Days later, people at a nearby dock started discovering neatly placed fresh fish each morning.
Initially suspecting a prank, they checked surveillance footage and were stunned to see a dolphin surfacing at night, gently placing fish on the wooden dock before swimming off. The behavior was soon linked to the recent rescue, leading many to believe the mother dolphin was deliberately thanking the man who helped save her baby.
She repeated the act multiple times. While marine biologists are cautious about attributing human emotions like gratitude to animals, they note that dolphins possess high intelligence and complex social awareness. Real or symbolic, the story has captured hearts worldwide as a beautiful example of the special bond between humans and dolphins.
Awwww.
(Via Ace)
- Entries
Now, compare that with the monstrous muslim invaders on the beach in Ceuta, Spain, who paraded a baby dolphin around as if it were some trophy they won for being the most inhumane of humanity, (spit). Animals are better people than those miserable shitheels.
Having studied dolphins extensively during my school years of the 70’s I have always felt that marine mammals are highly intelligent. They lack hands which is a necessity (IMO) to turn intelligence into the kind of accomplishment humans have.
I am not surprised by this. There are other true stories that point out that marine mammals have emotional IQ. Putting human in front of “emotions” is misleading. They are nothing short of amazing.