Bottlenoses may help those with the blues feel better.

A new study from the British Medical Journal found that swimming with dolphins daily took the edge off mild to moderate depression. Researchers aren't sure why, or if other animals would have the same effect."

We're not advertising this as some sort of broad-scale treatment," said Michael A. Reveley, a psychiatry professor at the University of Leicester Medical School and one of the study's authors. The study was published on Nov. 25.

"There really aren't enough dolphins for all the depressed people in the world and I'm not sure the dolphins would be happy about solving the problems of humankind."

Fifteen participants in Honduras took care of the animals and swam with them. The other group also spent time in the water swimming and snorkeling, but without squeaky mammals.

Both groups felt happier, but by the study's end, those with the dolphins rated themselves as significantly better. Three months later, they remained improved, Reveley said.

The researchers said they had heard stories about people feeling better after swimming with dolphins, but wanted to study it scientifically. One thought is that just being with the gentle and attentive creatures caused happy feelings, and that mood stuck.

"I don't know if it would be different with a dog or cat because they're domestic," Reveley said. "But I would postulate that they would provide an improvement."

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Jaws instead of Flipper? That's an encounter that could change your mood..

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After years of studying dolphins at play, Kuczaj, the researcher, and his colleagues
have reached some surprising conclusions: dolphin games show remarkable cooperationa nd creativity. Dolphins seem to deliberately make their games difficult, possibly in order to learn from them. And such pastimes may play a key role in the development of culture and in evolutionóboth among dolphins and other species, including humans.

Games "may help young animals learn their place in the social dynamics of the group,"
wrote Kuczaj, a psychologist with the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Miss., and colleagues in a paper to appear in the International
Journal of Comparative Psychology.

"The innovations produced during the interactions of young animals may be important sources for the evolution of animal traditions, as well as the adaptations that may lead to more successful individuals and species," they added.

The researchers based their findings on five years of research with a group of 16 captive bottlenose dolphins, and additional studies on wild dolphins.

Evolutionary theory holds that species gradually change because the rare mutations that are helpful for an animal spread through the population, eventually creating new species. Natural selection, a process in which only the organisms well-suited for their environment survive, spreads these genes by ensuring that those who have them live longer and reproduce more.

Many researchers have suggested that in line with this theory, animals inherited a predisposition to play because "it helps animals gain knowledge of the properties of objects, perfect motor skills, and recognize and manipulate characteristics of [their] environment," Kuczaj's group wrote.

One sign of the importance of play, they added, is that many animals play at the risk of loss of life and limb, including dolphins.

The scientists also cited research suggesting young dolphins deliberately make their games as hard as possible, possibly to enhance the learning experience.

The captive dolphins "produced 317 distinct forms of play behavior during the five years that they were observed," they wrote.

One calf became "adept at blowing bubbles while swimming upside-down near the bottom of the pool and then chasing and biting each bubble before it reached the surface," the researchers continued. ìShe then began to release bubbles while swimming closer and closer to the surface, eventually being so close that she could not catch a single bubble." "During all of this, the number of bubbles released was varied, the end result being that the dolphin learned to produce different numbers of bubbles from different depths, the apparent goal being to catch the last bubble right before it reached the surface of the water."

"She also modified her swimming style while releasing bubbles, one variation involving a fast spin-swim. This made it more difficult for her to catch all of the bubbles she released, but she persisted in this behavior until she was able to almost all of the bubbles she released. Curiously, the dolphin never released three or fewer bubbles, a number which she was able to catch and bite following the spin-swim release."

The dolphin may have been keeping her play interesting by blowing more bubbles than she could easily catch and bite, the researchers wrote.

"These observations are consistent with the notion that play facilitates the development and maintenance of flexible problem solving skills. If this is true, play may have evolved to enhance the ability to adapt to novel situations."

Although dolphins of all ages participated in games, most of the newly invented ones came from the youngsters themselves, the group wrote, providing evidence for a contribution of games to dolphin ìculture."

The notion that non-human animals can have culture gained scientific respectability only in this decade. This profound shift in attitudes came as a result of findings that chimpanzees and other primates develop local traditions, such as specific tool use strategies, and pass them on to their offspring. Such ìtraditionsî have been found among dolphins, too.

Now, Kuczaj maintains, it seems that what is usually considered mere childís play might have to be included as an integral part of, even an engine of, that culture.

"The ability to invent novel play behaviors and the ability to learn from the behaviors of others may be related to the creation and maintenance of animal traditions," the researchers wrote, "and ultimately to the survival of species."

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Fort Lauderdale Gets a Whole New Break

Without losing any of its original vitality, the city of Fort Lauderdale has grown up and along the way become a sleek, dynamic oceanfront community. Gone are the days when this was a small provincial town attracting college revelers during spring break to the Fifties hit refrain of where the boys are.

To find out more about this story, please read this article on TropicalAdventure.com. If you are outdoor lover, this would be a great trip for you. Read More!!

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