Her work in conservation and
animal welfare includes "the protection of dolphins in the tuna-fishing industry and her current efforts to bring an end to the killing of dolphins in the drive hunts in Japan."[7]
She was the scientific advisor for The Cove[2] and wrote The Dolphin in the Mirror: Exploring Dolphin Minds and Saving Dolphin Lives.
The following are a selection of Diana Reiss' peer-reviewed publications.
Reiss D, B McCowan, and L Marino. 1997. Communicative and other cognitive characteristics of bottlenose dolphins. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 1(4):140-145.
Reiss D and L Marino. 2001. Mirror self-recognition in the bottlenose dolphin: A case of cognitive convergence. PNAS. 98(10):5937-5942.
Plotnik JM, FBM de Waal, and D Reiss. 2006. Self-recognition in an Asian elephant. PNAS. 103(45):17053-17057.
Marino L, RC Connor, RE Fordyce, LM Herman, PR Hof, L Lefebvre, D Lusseau, B McCowan, EA Nimchinsky, AA Pack, R Rendell, JS Reidenberg, D Reiss, MD Uhen, E Van der Gucht, and H Whitehead. 2007. Cetaceans have complex brains for complex cognition. PLoS Biology. 5(5):966-972.
Plotnik JM, FBM de Waal, D Moore 3rd, and D Reiss. 2010. Self-recognition in the Asian elephant and future directions for cognitive research with elephants in zoological settings. ZooBiol. 29(2):179-191.
Foerder P, M Galloway, T Barthel, DE Moore 3, and D Reiss. 2011. Insightful problem solving in an Asian elephant. PLoS ONE. 6(8):e23251.