NPR is reporting that a recent study shows that dolphins have the ability to call each other by name, making them the first animals researchers have proven do so:
Science continues to show that what we think makes us human may not be so unique: New research finds that bottlenose dolphins call the “names of loved ones when they become separated,” Discovery News reports.
Wired reports that researchers analyzed recordings made by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, which captured pairs of dolphins and held them in separate nets.
“During the captures, the dolphins can’t see each other, but can hear each other and continue to communicate,” Wired writes. “In their analysis, King and Janik showed that some of the communications are copies of captured compatriots’ signature whistles — and, crucially, that the dolphins most likely to make these were mothers and calves or closely allied males.”
