Due to their off the charts intelligence levels, social behaviour and ability to derive pleasure from sex, dolphins are often considered among the most human-like creatures in the universe. And now science has provided us with another one: they like to get high.
It appears that by chewing on puffer fish who protect themselves by releasing a deadly nerve toxin, which, though fatal in large doses, appears to have a narcotic effect on the dolphins when consumed in lower ones, dolphins all over the world are getting high, entering “trance-like states” and spending hours hypnotised by their own reflections while having convoluted conversations about how weird their flippers look.
What is now the first recorded instance of recreational drug use performed by a species without the ability to grow dreadlocks, cook pop tarts or twirl fire sticks was chanced upon when the crew for BBC 1 nature documentary Dolphins: Spy in the Pod shot a visibly dazed group of adolescent male dolphins passing around a puffer fish like it was the last dry blunt at the Splendour In The Grass tipi forest.
Whoa, bro, that puffer fish is wigging me out.
