Dolphins 'call each other by name'

[hue]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23410137

Research has revealed that the marine mammals use a unique whistle to identify each other.

A team from the University of St Andrews in Scotland found that when the animals hear their own call played back to them, they respond.

The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr Vincent Janik, from the university's Sea Mammal Research Unit, said: &quot Dolphins) live in this three-dimensional environment, offshore without any kind of landmarks and they need to stay together as a group.

"These animals live in an environment where they need a very efficient system to stay in touch."

Signature whistles

It had been-long suspected that dolphins use distinctive whistles in much the same way that humans use names.

Previous research found that these calls were used frequently, and dolphins in the same groups were able to learn and copy the unusual sounds.

[Skittles]

1. our hopes and dreams that someday we will communicate with dolphins

our fears they will cuss like sailors (Jack Handey)

[ms liberty]

2. Cool. I am reminded of my favorite article from The Onion...

The title is " Dolphins develop Opposable Thumbs"... I would link to it, but I cannot figure out how to do that on this damn phone!

[bloomington-lib]

4. Here it is

http://www.theonion.com/articles/dolphins-evolve-opposable-thumbs,284/

HONOLULU–In an announcement with grave implications for the primacy of the species of man, marine biologists at the Hawaii Oceanographic Institute reported Monday that dolphins, or family Delphinidae, have evolved opposable thumbs on their pectoral fins.

One of the evolved dolphins, whose opposable thumbs have struck fear in the hearts of humankind.

"I believe I speak for the entire human race when I say, 'Holy fuck,'" said Oceanographic Institute director Dr. James Aoki, noting that the dolphin has a cranial capacity 40 percent greater than that of humans. "That's it for us monkeys."

Aoki strongly urged humans, especially those living near the sea, to learn to communicate using a system of clicks and whistles in a frequency range of 4 to 150 kHz. He also encouraged humans to "start practicing their echolocation as soon as possible."

Delphinologists have reported more than 7,000 cases of spontaneous opposable-digit manifestation in the past two weeks alone, with "thumbs" observed on the bottle-nosed dolphin, the Atlantic humpback dolphin, and even the rare Ganges River dolphin
....Continues

[ms liberty]

6. Thank you! n/t

[Chemisse]

10. Hysterical! And yet, how thought-provoking.

[1monster]

3. This is something that has been known for many years. I worked at the original oceanariums

in the mid seventies to the early eighties and it was common knowledge even then.

When baby dolphins are first born they are given a special whistle that is their name. The babies very soon learn to recognize the whistle as their own. I wish I still had access to some of the books written by the researchers back then. I'll have to see if I can find any of the papers written by the curators for the employees of the park to see if this was addressed.

On edit: David and Melba Caldwell were pioneers in dolphin communication.

Some of the early work instead pointed to the stereotypy of the whistles from individual dolphins, leading David and Melba Caldwell to suggest that the whistle functioned principally as a “signature,” with each individual dolphin producing a unique signature. Presumably, this enabled that individual to be identified by others.

http://www.dolphin-institute.org/resource_guide/animal_language.htm

[Scuba]

5. Cool stuff. Thanks for adding.

[JimDandy]

9. As a layperson only, I've also known

since the late seventies about dolphins recognizing whistles. But, curious about what new info might have been discovered, I clicked on the link and got my answer in the very first sentence:

"Scientists have found further evidence..."

Darn...got snookered in by an article that essentially corroborates an already previously known fact.

These kind of articles remind me of all those scenes on various episodes of the 'Big Bang Theory' where Sheldon matter-of-factly points out that some experiment of Leonard's simply replicates (or is functionally identical to) some other scientist's original research and Leonard, unfazed, proudly defends his experiment with some retort that validating original research is a useful and worthy endeavor.

[Chemisse]

11. That is just really amazing.

It makes me sick that we are polluting their habitat and driving them to who-knows-what with the Navy's loud noises off of Puerto Rico.

[reusrename]

7. Amazing beings.

The star of this video starts at about 30 seconds:

[Judi Lynn]

8. reusrename, thanks for the extraordinary treat!

Lively, intelligent, creative, joyful. Who would not love them?