Skip to main content
The Whale Sanctuary Project | Back to Nature
  • About
    • Mission & Programs
    • The Team
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Timeline: 2015 to present
  • The Sanctuary
  • Whale Aid
  • The Whales
  • Deeper Dive
  • Blog
  • Events

Donate  Subscribe

  • About
    • Mission & Programs
    • The Team
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Timeline: 2015 to present
  • The Sanctuary
  • Whale Aid
  • The Whales
  • Deeper Dive
  • Blog
  • Events

The World’s Most Intelligent Species?

Posted October 15, 2018 in Learn More, News by Lori Marino

We’ve known for a long time that whales and dolphins are intelligent and socially complex animals with large brains that are organized differently from our own.

And we’ve known that the neocortex of a whale or dolphin brain has more folds than ours. All those folds mean that the surface area is greater and therefore may have more units to process information.

But recently, when we used a special imaging technique to study the brain of a dolphin (who had died naturally), we were astonished by what we learned.

Above: Beluga brain (left) and human brain. A beluga brain is just under twice the size of a human one and has more folds in its neocortex (surface area), indicating that the part of their brain that’s involved in problem solving and thinking is highly elaborated.

While we humans and most other animals have a single pathway from the inner ear up to the first “stopover” for auditory information coming into the brain, it turns out that dolphins have two! (And orcas, although we commonly refer to them as whales, are the largest species of dolphin.)

This could mean that they process echolocation echoes in one region of the brain and whistles and other sounds in another. But we’re still trying to understand how these two kinds of sound information come together.

Another research team has found that the part of the brain in orcas that’s involved in problem-solving and social- and self-awareness is proportionally larger than in humans. This could suggest they have a more complex sense of self than we do – so they may experience life both as an individual and as a member of their pod. And this kind of mental life might require a lot more processing of information than is the case with humans.

So, are we humans the most intelligent species on the planet? Clearly, evolution has found a way to create more than one kind of complex intelligence.

This post is excerpted from our Fall Newsletter. We send the complete newsletter to everyone who’s donated in the last year, so if you’d like to receive a copy, please make your donation now. Your gift, large or small, will be worth twice as much since our lead sponsor, Munchkin, Inc, is matching all donations this year up to a total of $300,000.  

2 Comments

  • jim n dakis says:
    July 29, 2019 at 5:30 PM

    Stop the Slaughter of these wonderful and intelligent animals !

    Reply
  • JoAnne Jarvis says:
    October 25, 2018 at 12:21 PM

    Please make this known to all those responsible for whaling and dolphin slaughter and those who insist on imprisoning them!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Photo of Lori Marino
Lori Marino
President

Also on the Blog

  • How We Can Give Sanctuary to the Whales Who Cannot Wait
  • A Tale of Two Baby Orcas
  • Orca Brains and Intelligence
  • Canada Bans Captivity of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises
  • A Deep Dive into Environmental Analysis
  • TEDx Talk “Whales Without Walls” by Charles Vinick
  • Whale Aid Russia

Live Series of Webinars

What is an authentic sanctuary?
Latest discoveries about beluga whale societies.
The psychology of captivity.
Free Willy and the legacy of Keiko.
… and many more.


Check out this series of engaging conversations >

Join Us

Subscribe for Latest News

Make a donation

Get email updates

Subscribe

Follow Us

Help create the sanctuary

Make a donation
  • Privacy Policy |
  • Terms and Conditions of Use |
  • Contact Us |
  • UX Design by Dialogue Theory

© 2025 The Whale Sanctuary Project. All Rights Reserved.