輕松英語閱讀：愛玩耍的海豚

Dolphins are well-known for their playfulness and intelligence. They have many similarities to humans. They have large brains. They are extremely social animals. They use sounds to communicate. The list goes on. However, you will find this latest discovery very surprising.

It appears dolphins like to get high and they do it intentionally. A team from the BBC made this discovery when making a documentary on bottlenose dolphins. The dolphin’s drug of choice is puffer fish toxin. However, they don’t actually eat the puffer fish. Such large amounts of the toxin would be deadly, but in smaller amounts it is like a narcotic. It appears puffer fish release small amounts of toxin when they are threatened. The dolphins will gently nibble on the puffer fish to provoke them and make them produce the toxins.

The BBC team filmed the dolphins gently chewing a puffer fish and passing it around. Afterwards, the dolphins began displaying strange behavior. For example, they would put their noses near the surface and study their own reflections in fascination.