Trained motor imitation by bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)

Each of two bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, was trained to mimic a set of behaviors on command. They were tested on transfer of the mimic command to a set of familiar behaviors which they had not previously been commended to mimic. They were similarly tested on two novel behaviors. One dolphin demonstrated complete mimicry of 5 of 11 familiar behaviors; the other dolphin mimicked 1 of 9 behaviors. None of the mimicked behaviors was exhibited to an inappropriate model, suggesting that performance was not due to chance. Neither dolphin imitated the novel behaviors.