In a dolphin research project funded by NASA, Margaret recorded the process of training male bottlenose dolphin Peter to show the dolphin IQ and emotion.

New York, NY (Merxwire) - When international singer Jolin Tsai released the Official Music Video "Sweet Guilty Pleasure," the Video's plot reminded everyone of the 1965 Dolphin Research Project. The study taught dolphins to learn human language, recorded their IQ & emotions, and the outcome was shocking.

Dolphin Research Project

This is a research funded by NASA. The purpose of the research is to teach dolphins to learn human language, but this experiment involves ethical issues, so it was not made public at the time. Margaret Howe Lovatt wrote the diary into a book, and this research gradually became known and was made into the documentary "The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins."

At the time, 23-year-old Margaret worked as a trainer for male bottlenose dolphin Peter. Peter had a good learning ability and liked to follow Margaret. Under her guidance, Peter will be able to imitate the numbers "one, two, three" and simple "hello, hi" with the voice of blowhole in a few weeks.

For further research, she decided to spend more time training dolphins. They are together almost 24 hours a day, including eating, sleeping, bathing, etc. Peter also likes to touch Margaret's body, which makes them more intimate.

Dolphins show high IQ

During training, Margaret painted white paint around her lips and black paint on her lips to make her mouth look like a dolphin blowhole. This method allows Peter to understand human mouth shapes better and increase the speed of learning.

Peter's learning progressed rapidly; even when Margaret said "work work work," Peter would answer "play play play." This means that Peter wants to play and doesn't want to keep learning.

During the experiment, the team-taught Peter about 700 English words. Because of the blowhole limitation, the words starting with M are difficult to pronounce, but this also makes Margaret expect Peter to learn more words.

Dolphins & human emotions

Peter looks in the mirror every day and expresses himself in various ways to attract Margaret's attention. Until later, Peter relied heavily on Margaret. When Peter found out that Margaret was leaving, Peter would have negative emotions and continue to use blowhole to pronounce Margaret's name.

Peter also showed jealous emotions. Whenever Margaret uses the phone, Peter yells at the phone, hoping she can come back soon.

This story's end is heartbreaking because the study was suspended, which prevented Peter and Margaret from living together. Peter was later sent to another organization. As Peter's health continued to decline, Peter finally sank to the bottom of the pool, didn't want to surface to breathe, and never came up again.