Spectrograms of dolphin vocalizations. Top row are signature whistles; in the middle, signature whistle copies; at bottom, the signature whistles of the copiers. Image: Stephanie L. King/Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Just when you thought dolphins couldn’t get any cooler. Marine biologists at the University of St. Andrews conducted a study to better understand how dolphins communicate in the wild. The group studied eleven dolphin “conversations” and discovered that the dolphins used their own signature whistles when announcing their presence to other groups, as if they were introducing themselves by their own unique names. Once the other dolphins heard these whistles, they listened to the speaker at hand. Linguists call this phenomenon, referential communication with learned signals, where sounds are used to represent individuals and objects. Right now, only humans are believed to do this.
The study also found that the dolphins only whistled when they were mixing with the group, not simply to say hello and swim away. What’s so fascinating is that only one representative from each dolphin group whistled, as if they were speaking for the entire group. This research not only reveals insight into dolphin communication patterns, but also the social mechanisms in play in dolphin society.
(via Wired)
