#MarineWildlife - The Daily Express looks to two of Ireland's resident cetaceans, Duggie and Fungie, for answers to the question of whether dolphin intelligence is truly all it's cracked up to be.

Dingle's famous dolphin Fungie should need no introduction, but the story of Duggie might be new to you: this dolphin apparently befriended a labrador named Ben after losing her own mate in the waters around Tory Island off Donegal.

Both dolphins are remarkable for the relationships they've formed with different species - see the story of a Dutch couple's bonding with Fungie over more than two decades for further evidence.

However, some scientists want to throw water on the notion that dolphins are humans' closest intellectual peers in the animal kingdom.

"In terms of intelligence they are nowhere near as special as they have been portrayed," says zoologist Justin Gregg, who has written a new book, Are Dolphins Really Smart?, that questions the widely-held wisdom that dolphins have superior brains to the likes of dogs, or that the complex sounds they make are language.

But is is really such a stretch to say that dolphins have a language of their own? Only last year US marine science boffins were baffled by a beluga whale who spontaneously mimicked human speech - in what sounded like a Donegal Irish accent.

The Daily Express has much more on the story HERE.