Signature whistle shape conveys identity information to bottlenose dolphins.
Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) develop individually distinctive signature whistles that they use to maintain group cohesion. Unlike the development of identification signals in most other species, signature whistle development is strongly influenced by vocal learning. This learning ability is maintained throughout life, and dolphins frequently copy each other's whistles in the wild. It has been hypothesized that signature whistles can be used as referential signals among conspecifics, because captive bottlenose dolphins can be trained to use novel, learned signals to label objects. For this labeling to occur, signature whistles would have to convey identity information independent of the caller's voice features. However, experimental proof for this hypothesis has been lacking. This study demonstrates that bottlenose dolphins extract identity information from signature whistles even after all voice features have been removed from the signal. Thus, dolphins are the only animals other than humans that have been shown to transmit identity information independent of the caller's voice or location.
Janik
V M
VM
Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution and Sea Mammal Research Unit, School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, Fife KY16 8LB, United Kingdom. vj@st-andrews.ac.uk
Sayigh
L S
LS
Wells
R S
RS
D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D050681:Bottle-Nosed Dolphin / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D004455:Echolocation; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D007858:Learning; D012919:Social Behavior; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D014828:Vocalization, Animal