What is it about?
Bottlenose dolphins produce name-like sounds called signature whistles to maintain contact with others. Female dolphins produce signature whistles with higher maximum frequencies when in the presence of their calves vs. when not with their calves. Human caregivers communicating with infants or young children alter their speech in a similar way, a phenomenon known as “motherese,” or child-directed communication (CDC).
Featured Image
Photo by Damian Patkowski on Unsplash
Why is it important?
This study provides an example of convergent evolution of child directed communication in a non-human mammal. Given that dolphins and humans are also both capable of vocal production learning, dolphins appear to be a strong animal model for studying the evolution of vocal learning and language.
Perspectives
This project was only possible because of a long-term collaboration with the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, which is responsible for collecting and maintaining long-term data on this resident dolphin community. Long-term research projects are immensely valuable, but the amount of effort involved in keeping them going is rarely recognized sufficiently.
Laela Sayigh
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Bottlenose dolphin mothers modify signature whistles in the presence of their own calves, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2300262120.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
