Dolphins Have Names For Themselves and One Another

26 November 2014

- African bottlenose dolphins join the list of dolphins known to use signature whistles to address each other – similar to how humans use names.

The vast majority of research into how bottlenose dolphins communicate has been conducted in captivity or on animals who are restrained during the study. These studies have shown that a dolphins learns its own individually distinctive whistle, known as a signature whistle. Groups of dolphins are known to exchange signature whistles when they meet at sea. The dolphins use the whistles to address each other – similar to how humans use names. But it was unclear whether African bottlenose dolphins use a similar communication system, until now.

A new study has found that both species of bottlenose dolphin found in South Africa and Namibia; the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) and the common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), use a communication system based on signature whistles.