Dolphins Seem to Use Toxic Pufferfish to Get High | Hacker News Reader

Dolphins Seem to Use Toxic Pufferfish to Get High

smithsonianmag.com

25 pointslxm19 comments

Oh boy, again the dolphin pufferfish article.

This article has been submitted on HN 10 times [0] in the past 5 years. Linked from various websites. This seems one of those articles that does really well on algorithms.

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=dolphins%20puffer&sort=byDate&...

Including two days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19184234

And 6 of those 10 Times was in the last 5 days.

Here's a vision neuroscientist - Robert Marc, distinguished professor emeritus University of Utah - shooting down the whole article. https://twitter.com/robertmarc60/status/1096946633361641472

I had an inkling the article was BS for similar reasons. TTX blocks sodium channels. Nothing about that mechanism would get you “high”, unless by “high” you mean numbness and difficulty breathing.

I love how in the Twitter feed, people want to believe the article is true. Why? They love a cute story? Animals getting high is cool? The internet would never lie? They seem overinvested in it being true.

Animals do like to sedate though including some samples in the article, we all know cats love catnip. Same with mice in tests. Even if this case it not fully confirmed or incorrect we do know animals partake in activities to have fun.

Thanks for that - the contrarian skeptic in me has been vindicated.

The wonders of the internet are allowing us to break down Gell-Mann Amnesia. Now when we see whimsical headlines like this one, we can just @ relevant academic authorities uninvolved in the story and bait them to debunk it.

Man, I hope nobody tells Professor Marc that Homo sapiens have been documented inhaling benzene and other[X] potent neurotoxins to get high!

[X]edit: specifically with benzene, I was apparently wrong to call it a neurotoxin (its mechanisms of toxicity aren't neurological).

> The dolphins were filmed gently playing with the puffer, passing it between each other for 20 to 30 minutes at a time, unlike the fish they had caught as prey which were swiftly torn apart.

> Zoologist and series producer Rob Pilley said that it was the first time dolphins had been filmed behaving this way.

> At one point the dolphins are seen floating just underneath the water's surface, apparently mesmerised by their own reflections.

Apparently dolphins know how to have a good time and know more than we think. Dolphins will be the first to jet if it all goes under just like in Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy.

From the Guide:

>> "On the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time.

Lock up the criminal dolphins! /s

Add them to the sex offender registry!

Let me guess... you love dolphins so much that you can't stop reading about them... /sigh

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19189284

So are you jealous that this thread is catching attention while yours was not?

what's exactly the point of your comment?

Exactly that... is it bad to be jealous?

It can be annoying... that I know!

You seem to love reading about them just as much. One day before your submission:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19185432

But don't worry, you're in good company:

2 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19184234

Shortly before that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19181575

4 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19164541

And that's just within the last week. Luckily it doesn't keep up this frequency:

4 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18155797

March 6th, 2014: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7356602

January 4th, 2014: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7009842

December 30th, 2013: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6985677

I did have a dream about a dolphin the other day... coincidence?! I think not...

But yes, I can be a smartass sometimes and too lazy to check what's posted or not... thanks for calling me out on it. ;-)

Here's an article debunking it: http://justingregg.com/evidence-for-dolphins-getting-high-on...

tl;dr it's not based on any scientific evidence, it's a few anecdotes and it's entirely unclear if it's plausible.

Same.

I'd love to watch a documentary on this type of behavior. There seems to be multiple instances of it in the animal kingdom.

My grandmas dog actually had a taste for a particular mushroom that would really daze him out. We had to watch him closely or he'd be messed up and stumbling around for hours.

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