For reasons I can't recall now, my coworker and I were talking about humanity's unique capacity to develop the tools of its own demise. And I just wondered if there was any other species that also lays the groundwork for their doom. My friend mentioned that she's learned that dolphins will get high off of the poison in pufferfish.
Which, naturally, led to the question of whether the dolphins then proceed to peddle pufferfish poison to other dolphins. I mean, are their dolphin pufferfish cartels? Are dolphins snagging pufferfish and giving them to orcas and whales and other sea life?
Of course, my friend pointed out that dolphins and killer whales don't actually get along. Well, maybe that's because they are part of competing cartels. Maybe that's why dolphins mysteriously ending up on beaches. Maybe there are some pufferfish cartel turf wars going on.
And what about the innocent bystanders? All that poor sea life that is just trying to live their life in peace? They want a better life, but to live on the right side of the reef is just too expensive. So they do the best they can but they still get caught up in the fighting. They just want a good life for their kids!
Maybe, when we have "Save the dolphins" marches, we are really trying to save them from the cartels.
I mean, can you prove that it's not a thing? Maybe we aren't alone in our ability to shoot ourselves in the foot. Maybe, just maybe, dolphins do it too.
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