Nikita interviews Dr. Lori Marino, an expert in animal behaviour and intelligence and the founder of The Whale Sanctuary Project that is working on building a seaside sanctuary for captive cetaceans. Want to learn about the fascinating mirror recognition test in bottlenose dolphins or the controversial dolphin assisted therapies?

Lori Marino is a neuroscientist and expert in animal behavior and intelligence, formerly on the faculty of Emory University. Lori received her Ph.D. in biopsychology in 1995, and is internationally known for her work on the evolution of the brain and intelligence in dolphins and whales (as well as primates and farmed animals).

She has published over 130 peer-reviewed scientific papers, book chapters, and magazine articles on marine mammal biology and cognition, comparative brain anatomy, self-awareness in nonhuman animals, human-nonhuman animal relationships, and the evolution of intelligence. She is also an expert on marine mammal captivity issues such as dolphin assisted therapy and the educational claims of the zoo and aquarium industry. In 2001, she co-authored a ground-breaking study offering the first conclusive evidence for mirror self-recognition in bottlenose dolphins, after which she decided against further research with captive animals.

Lori is also the Founder and Executive Director of The Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy, which focuses on bridging the gap between academic research and scholarship and on-the-ground animal advocacy efforts. She has appeared in several films and television programs, including the 2013 documentary Blackfish about killer whale captivity, Unlocking the Cage, the 2016 documentary on the Nonhuman Rights Project, and Long Gone Wild, the 2019 documentary that picks up where Blackfish left off and the work of the Whale Sanctuary Project begins.