Dolphins Have Names

[Celyn]

Wow, dolphins just seem determined to keep proving how clever they are.

Bottlenose dolphins have distinct “names” that they use to identify individuals in their social group, according to a study by scientists who followed groups of the animals off the east coast of Scotland. The names are composed of whistles – signature high-pitched sounds that are created by individual dolphins as they grow – which they then use throughout their lives to broadcast their locations to other dolphins they meet at sea.

…

“The interesting thing about these is that they are not voice recognition,” said Janik. “In humans you can have different people say the same word and I’d still be able to tell who’s speaking. What we also do is have names, so they are very different call types. The dolphins do the same thing, they’re developing a completely new call type, a melody or whistle, which is not dependent on their voice features.”

Bottlenose dolphins use names to identify companions

Oh no - I’ve just realised that having names and knowing your friends’ names can lead to complications. I mean, do they have the same social problems of knowing that they have met dolphin X before, but simply cannot recall the name right now? So they might even need a dolphin phrase for “look, this is terribly embarrassing and I am really sorry, but I can’t think of your name”.

[Wile_E]

Fa love Pa!

[Celyn]

Eek. That’s from a film quite a long time ago, isn’t it? And I can NOT recall the damn name of the film. Huh. :smack:

[Celyn]

Hmm. “The Day of the Dolphin”, apparently. How odd that I can remember a dolphin sort of saying “Fa” but the name of the film doesn’t ring a bell.

Shit. I think I am a lot stupider than the average dolphin. Oh well.

[Senegoid]

Yes, “Fa love Pa” was from “Day of the Dolphin” (1973), starring George C. Scott.

The idea that dolphins have signature whistles has been around a long time. I don’t know why this should be in the news now. I participated in a dolphin language project in the early 1980’s. (I described it in some detail in another thread around here, just last week.) Signature whistles were a known thing even then.

ETA: Here it is:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16477899&postcount=8

[Sailboat]

It periodically appears in the news, and each time the news organization tells us this is the first time a non-human has been found using names.

The story runs in regular rotation with the story about scientists discovering birds use names, and each time the news organization tells us this is the first time a non-human other than dolphins has been found using names.

Prairie dogs occasionally get a mention, for using very specific terms to communicate different predators, and each time the news organization tells us this is the first time a non-human has been found using specific identifiers. I’m not really sure if they use “names,” although there may be more prairie dog research underway on that may reveal more.

After a while, the more interesting untold scientific story is: why do humans have this strange blind spot, this unwillingness to remember evidence that animals may think like we do?

[lavenderviolet]

@Sailboat

After a while, the more interesting untold scientific story is: why do humans have this strange blind spot, this unwillingness to remember evidence that animals may think like we do?

I think it’s pretty clear that humans try to pretend that animals are vastly different than we are because:
-It’s easier for us to justify mistreating and killing an animal if we think of it as an object rather than a living being with an inner mental life similar to our own
-Humans really like thinking that we are “special” and on a vastly different moral plane than other animals. This is despite evidence that some animals are capable of understanding basic morality and fairness too (in some cases I’d say that they seem to understand it better than certain humans do ).