Human is, no doubt, the most advanced animal, but the evolution of consciousness does not begin and in with us. They have labels for themselves and also for their cliques. 'In the first few months of life, each bottlenose dolphin develops what’s known as a “signature whistle”—a collection of notes unique to each dolphin. Though dolphins mostly stick to their own whistle, anecdotal evidence suggested that dolphins sometimes copy each others signature whistles. “But it wasn’t understood why [they might copy each other], or who produced the copies,” explained Stephanie King, a marine mammal scientist at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, who led the new research. Because the signature whistles are unique, it was conceivable that dolphins could be using them to label or address other dolphins, King noted. In order to get a clearer sense of who calls whose whistle and under what circumstances, King and her collaborators first recorded calls of dolphins off the coast of Florida and a few dolphins in captivity. The researchers found that copying only occurred between animals with close social bonds, such as mothers and calves or pairs of captive male dolphins. The team published the work in Proceedings of the Royal Society B earlier this year. This initial “study showed that dolphins are most likely to copy the signature whistles of close associates, shortly after the associate whistles,” Peter Tyack, a marine mammal biologist at the University of St. Andrews who was not involved in the research, wrote in email to The Scientist. The copying occurred when dolphins were separated from friends and family, and it seemed “they really want to reunite,” noted King.'
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 22:02:43 +0000
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