Dolphin Moms Use Baby Talk to Call to Their Young, Recordings Show

A study published Monday found that female bottlenose dolphins change their tone when addressing their calves. Researchers recorded the signature whistles of 19 mother dolphins in Florida, when accompanied by their young offspring and when swimming alone or with other adults.

The dolphin signature whistle is a unique and important signal — akin to calling out their own name.

“They use these whistles to keep track of each other. They’re periodically saying, ‘I’m here, I’m here’,” said study co-author Laela Sayigh, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution marine biologist in Massachusetts.

When directing the signal to their calves, the mother’s whistle pitch is higher and her pitch range is greater than usual, according to the study published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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[ginadoell]

I helped do dolphin research in the Bahamas and it was so exciting. One thing I remember during classification was what I called the 'teenagers' who liked to play 'tag' as they whipped gently passed my leg and swam off like, 'tag-you're-it' and I would swim as fast as I could not to keep up! And I loved how they noticed I wasn't fast enough but they would take turns brushing against me until a 'mama' dolphin would eventually come back and tell them to 'quit messing around and keep up." Eventually, the defiant teenagers would let me know it was time for them to go, and off they went. I was lucky enough to play this game with them for a week before I had to go. Fun times - great memories!

[paulchesney]

Dolphins are simply amazing and wonderful