Our senses can help us better understand our world. Humans have 5 senses. We can see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. Dolphins can't smell, but share the other 4 senses in common with humans, in addition to their sense of echolocation.

We still have a lot to learn about echolocation. Can dolphins understand what the shape of an object is from its echoes?

To try and learn more we created a dolphin test. We submerged a box containing an object into the tank. The box was dark, so the dolphin could not see what was in the box. However, he could echolocate into the box.

After echolocating on the object inside the box, the dolphin swam to the other side of the tank., Waiting for him were three people holding different objects in the air. Echolocation only works under the water, so he could only use his eyes to inspect them.

One of the objects matched what was in the box. The dolphin's task was to pick which one matched from the three choices, just like a multiple choice test. Not only could the dolphins do this with very different objects which were easy to tell apart, but they could also tell apart objects that were very similar.

In other words, dolphins can "see through sound".

Even though you can't echolocate (can you?) you can still use more than one of your senses at the same time to identify different objects.

Now it's your turn to be the dolphin! Click below to play the game.