[darpa_escapee]

You're assuming another intelligence values the same things as humans.

> I would assume dolphins still die from lack of food, disease, and predation.

Hell, we can find humans that don't value such things. Take a look at Christian Scientists, they'll forgo treatment of disease out of fear of rejecting the "divine Principle".

Dolphins use tools to hunt and catch prey. They also engage is pretty complex behaviors to eat.

It took humans roughly a hundred thousand years to find a solution to death from a lack of food through agriculture and we have opposable thumbs.