Animals
Do dolphins have names for each other?
The short answer
Yes. Each bottlenose dolphin invents its own signature whistle early in life, and a 2013 study from the University of St Andrews showed that wild dolphins respond when they hear a copy of their own whistle and ignore copies of other dolphins'. It is the closest thing to a name found in any animal other than us.
Scientists had known for decades that each bottlenose dolphin has a distinctive whistle it repeats more than any other sound. The question was whether it worked as a label, something other dolphins used to get a particular individual's attention, or whether it was more like a personal catchphrase.
Stephanie King and Vincent Janik tested it off the east coast of Scotland. They recorded wild dolphins' signature whistles, made clean computer copies that stripped out the quirks of each animal's voice, and played them back through an underwater speaker. A dolphin hearing its own whistle called back, often right away. Hearing a familiar companion's whistle, or a stranger's, it mostly did nothing.
Signature whistles are learned, not inherited, and make up about half of what a dolphin says. Dolphins also copy the whistles of close friends and family, apparently to call them specifically. That is, by any reasonable standard, using a name. They have been doing it the entire time we were wondering whether they could.
Sources
- Dolphins respond to individual namesUniversity of St Andrews
- Bottlenose dolphins can use learned vocal labels to address each otherProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences