Another Blossom

 

Kelly the dolphin was captured in 1978, off the coast of Florida. Kelly lived and performed at Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Mississippi, more than twenty years. Dolphins at Marine Life – as in many other similar places – are trained to retrieve stray objects or dead birds that fall into their tanks in exchange for fish. “People are careless, they drop everything in the pool,” said one of the trainers. “Batteries, cameras, pacifiers. These guys were really good. They’d find anything.” It didn’t take Kelly long to see she got the same amount of fish regardless of the size of the trash. So, she stashed her rubbish, giving it up bit by bit to maximize her payload. Then Kelly cooked up an even better scheme. She’d use her fish to lure seagulls into her pool, where she’d kill them and exchange them for more fish. She taught her own calf this strategy, who passed the trick on to other calves.