WEBVTT - Can We Talk to Dolphins? 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:05.360 Hey, welcome to Sign Stuff production of iHeartRadio. I'm Hoar 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:08.080 hit Cham and today we're asking the question, can we 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:13.400 talk to dolphins? They're one of the most intelligent animals 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:16.720 out there. Is it possible to decode what they're saying 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:20.239 to each other? We're gonna talk to two dolphin experts 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.079 who have been observing and listening in on our poor 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:26.600 boys friends for decades, and they're gonna tell us what 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:29.640 we know about dolphines and whether we can use it 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:32.600 to have a conversation with them. So get ready to 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:35.800 take the plunge as we dive into clear blue waters 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:39.360 to answer the question can we talk to dolphins? 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:40.160 Enjoy? 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:47.320 Hey everyone, If you ask a bunch of kids what 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.559 their favorite animal is, the chances are more than a 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:53.760 few of them will say it's dolphins. And I was 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:56.040 one of those kids. I love to swim and I 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:59.320 scuba and so to this day, if anyone asked me 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:01.960 if I could be any animal, which one would it be, 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:05.760 I'll still answer a dolphin. So I was excited to 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:08.800 talk to our experts today. I had a lot of questions, 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:12.360 what are dolphins like, what do we know about their language? 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.959 And could we ever actually communicate with them. We'll start 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:19.959 with our first expert, doctor Denise Hersing. Doctor Hearsing is 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:23.080 well known in the marine biology community, and she's often 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.560 called the Jane Goodle of the sea for her decades 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.600 long work trying to understand how dolphins behave and talk 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:33.400 to each other. First question I had for doctor Hersing 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:39.959 was what are dolphins like? Well, thank you so much, 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:41.240 doctor Heusing for joining us. 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:42.679 Great to be here. Thank you. 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:44.399 Can you please tell us who you are and what 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:44.720 you do? 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:47.480 Sure? I'm doctor Denise Hersing. 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:52.760 I am a marine mammalogist and I specialize in dolphin 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:57.000 acoustic and behavioral communication. And I'm the head of the 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.920 Wild Dolphin Project, which is a nonprofit I've been running 0:01:59.920 --> 0:02:03.120 for forty plus years and we go out in the 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.400 Bahamas in the summer study while dolphins, and we've been 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:08.760 doing it ever summer since nineteen eighty five. 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:12.320 What kind of animal are dolphins like? How would you 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:13.320 describe what they're like? 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:18.120 Dolphins are an aquatic social mammal. They have a lot 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:23.040 of parallels to terrestrial mammals like primates and elephants, in 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:26.680 the sense that they have tight societies that are based 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:32.120 on mother cap relationships. They have long term friendships. They 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:36.040 learn and develop through the years, so everything they do 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:38.440 is not instinct, you know. They learn the social rules, 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.600 they learn who their friends are and who their enemies are, 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.520 and they survive in the wild. So they're really a 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:49.280 complicated social mammal that has just evolved for a aquatic existence. 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:53.160 Partly why they're so difficult to study, to get time 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:55.760 with them on the water and or under the water. 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:58.000 What do I mean? Just the water is a difficult 0:02:58.120 --> 0:02:59.880 place to do studies. 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.640 The ocean is a large place. It's a big area 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:06.280 that they're resident in, right, So we can spend days 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:08.080 looking for them. We kind of know where they hang 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:11.840 out sometimes, but their mobile they move around, they chase fish, 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.799 so getting observation time is harder I think than many 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:16.920 terrestrial animals. 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.320 Oh wow, I had thought about that. Yeah, you have 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:22.280 to swim after them basically to study them. So you 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.840 mentioned that it's a resident pod. How about how many 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:26.280 dolphins are you talking about? 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:30.040 So historically it's been about one hundred animals every summer, 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:33.840 so it's a small community. They're considered a coastal species, 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.240 so they don't live in these big open ocean schools. 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:39.480 Oh, I see. Is there a sense of what kind 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:43.280 of social structure they have? Do these hundred dolphins organize 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:45.520 themselves in any way or are they just sort of 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:46.320 hanging out? 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:49.760 No, they have their own organization. We call it fission fusion, 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:52.560 which means that they come together and split apart, come 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:56.000 together and split apart. For example, a typical group size 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:59.640 for us would be eight to ten dolphins, like females 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:01.920 would forage with other females, or it might be a 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:05.080 big group of males looking for females. Or it might 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:06.360 be a mixed up group. 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:12.200 Interesting and it's flexible. I guess they'll switch groups and 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:13.920 form different groups at different times. 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:16.080 Yeah, but you know they have friends. They have their 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:19.279 best friends, and they have their alliances. They might form 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.040 to fight off predators that sort of thing. But yeah, 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:25.600 it's pretty organized. The strong bonds between mothers and cats, 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.760 in between male groups and the juveniles are the teenagers, right, 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:31.000 They're getting in trouble and learning the hard way. 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:36.440 Sometimes, whoa how does the dolphin get into trouble? Oh? 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:38.760 There are many ways of dolphin cann't get to trouble. 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:42.680 They can think they know more than they do, so 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:45.920 they could challenge like an adult that's older than them. 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:49.039 They'll get slapped around. For example, they can. 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.120 Get a little too bold with sharks and they get eaten, 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:53.360 you know, or injured. 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:56.919 Again, they think they know everything when they're teenagers. 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:01.240 Sounds familiar, huh, it does? Yeah. Did they also call 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:04.440 their parents broke like my kids did these days? 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:07.080 I don't know, We don't know. 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:12.600 The other dolphin scientist I talked to was doctor Layla Sayik, 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:15.960 a scientist that's been involved in the longest running study 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:19.760 of a dolphin population in history. 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:23.160 My name is Leila Sayek, and I'm a scientist at 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:27.880 the Woodsville Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and the United States, 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:29.880 and I study dolphin communication. 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:32.720 Amazing. How long have you been working with dolphins? 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:35.080 About forty years? Hard to willing. 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:39.000 Yeah, Oh my goodness. Can you tell me about this study? 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:40.960 What do you mean it's been the longest running study 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:42.320 on a group of dolphins. 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.640 Yeah, it's amazing because this resident population of dolphins in 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:49.320 Sarasota was first sort of discovered and study began back 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:53.080 in nineteen seventy, so fifty five years ago at this point, 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:56.320 and they did some research seeing where the animals go 0:05:56.400 --> 0:05:59.680 and actually discovered pretty quickly that these animals live there, like, 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:02.239 not migrating up and down the coast. They are living 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:07.280 in this one area in the waters in and around Sarasota, Florida. 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:09.120 How many dolphins are there? 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:11.720 There's about one hundred and seventy and. 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:14.920 So you've tracked these dolphins through multiple generations by at 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:16.200 this point, I imagine. 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:20.159 Yes, yes, there are six generations known to researchers. Yeah, 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.520 so that's just amazing to be able to know an 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:26.799 animal's mother and grandmother and great grandmother and great great grandmother, 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:30.000 and not to mention all their siblings and aunts and 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.200 uncles and you know, you name it. It's really an amazing 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:34.760 data set. 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:41.080 How would you describe what kind of animal they are? 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:45.599 They definitely are very intelligent animals. I mean if they 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:51.760 are very curious and really interesting to study because they're complicated. 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:54.680 They kind of like us. They live long lives and 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.360 they have a lot of different relationships with other dolphins. 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:00.240 It's interesting to hear you say the word relationship. What 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:02.640 do you mean what kinds of relationships the dolphins have? 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:05.560 Well, they have really long lasting I don't know if 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:07.800 you want to call them friendships or I don't you know, 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:09.840 I don't know what the right word is, but they 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:14.240 definitely hang out with certain other dolphins very predictably. And 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:17.200 so that's seen especially in the adult males in the 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:21.200 population that I study. And so when the males reach adulthood, 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:26.240 they have this partner, their alliance partner who they are 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:28.920 with really virtually all of the time. I mean, it's 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:31.640 it's really the strongest bond that we see in the population. 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:39.640 Maybe we can call them friendships. Sorry, interesting, So males 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:42.160 and para kind of for life almost. 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.560 Yeah, I mean, it can be for life. And I 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:46.760 should also point out that I am talking about this 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:50.000 one population of dolphins that I work with in Sarasota, Florida, 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:52.960 but there are plenty of other populations of dolphins out there. 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:55.520 We don't even know if a lot of them have 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:58.200 these same types of social relationships. 0:07:58.520 --> 0:07:59.920 Oh wow, we don't know. 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:02.560 We don't know. There is one other long term research 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.960 site in Australia in an area called Shark Bay, and 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.800 there the males actually much more typically form trios rather 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:10.520 than pairs. 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:14.840 What that's fascinating. It's almost like they have a local culture. 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:18.320 I feel like you're saying, yeah, potentially that's right. I mean, yeah, 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.840 that different populations do different things. They're certainly not in 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.600 any way kind of hardwired to behave in certain ways, 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:26.920 at least at that level. 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:29.920 How would you describe this group of dolphins. Is it 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:32.719 like a village, Is it like a pack? Is it 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:33.680 like a family? 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:37.240 Well, the word that my colleagues are run the project 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:39.679 down there at the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, they call 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.680 it a community. That's the word that they typically use 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:45.680 to describe it. So, you know, that sort of probably 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:48.400 brings to mind, you know, sort of the idea that 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:51.520 these animals are connected in ways, you know, the way 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.640 we think of a community, that they probably almost certainly 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.400 all know each other. They probably even know whose mom 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:01.439 and sister and things like that. I wouldn't be surprised. 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:05.679 Yes, there's a lot we don't know about dolphins. We 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:08.720 know they have complex societies and that their behavior is 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:12.560 not necessarily hardwired, which means they learn from each other. 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:15.760 And that brings us to the main question of the episode, 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:20.120 which is how do dolphins communicate? And could we ever 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:23.000 talk to them? So when we come back, I'll ask 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:26.720 our two experts these questions. So don't flip out, stay 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:45.719 with us, We'll be right back. Hi, welcome back. We're 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.880 talking about whether we can ever talk to dolphins, and hey, 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:51.760 if you're interested in the general topic of animal communication, 0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:54.559 check out our December tenth episode in which we talk 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:57.240 about the history of humans trying to talk to all 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:01.880 kinds of animals, from gorillas and parrots, cats and dogs. 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:05.640 But today we're focusing on dolphins. And so far we've 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:09.120 talked about how complex the social structure of dolphins is. 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:11.679 Now the question is what do we know about how 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:14.640 they talk to each other. Here's more of my conversations 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:20.319 with doctor Denise Herzing and doctor Layla Seig. Well, I 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:23.520 guess that's prett to the question what kind of language 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:26.160 do dolphins have or what do we know about how 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:27.440 the way that they talk to each other? 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:30.480 Sure, well, I think most scientists would probably first of all, 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:32.760 say we don't know if they have a language, because 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.120 that infers a lot of things. As far as you know, 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:37.280 what we know of human language, so we know they 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:38.920 have complicated communication. 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:41.319 For sure. We do know some things. 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:44.000 We know a couple really important things I could tell 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:48.000 you right now. We can identify certain behavioral states like 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:52.559 courtship or fighting by the types of sounds that are 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:55.280 within that activity. You know, certain types of sounds we 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:57.000 hear in aggression. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's like 0:10:57.320 --> 0:10:59.320 I could do it by ear too. But we kind 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:03.280 of know that they do change sound types for different activities. 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:03.840 Huh. 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:08.720 What we don't know is are there repeated patterns structure 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.840 and order to some of these sound sequences that would 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:15.840 suggest they have language like structure, because any language has 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:19.920 to have some structure, right. So we're just starting, I think, 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.720 to look at this and some reasearers might say, well, 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:24.319 we've looked at all of it, and they don't. But 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:26.840 you know, honestly, we haven't had the tools. 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:27.720 I don't think. 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:31.679 Now we have machine learning and AI, and these tools 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:34.720 are going to at least help us identify some of 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:36.120 these patterns and structures. 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:38.959 It just a curmed I guess there's sort of three things, right. 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:41.920 There's a certain pattern of behavior in terms of the 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:46.360 calls they make during certain activities. There's the idea of vocabulary, 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:50.280 like do certain sounds correspond to certain things or concepts? 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:52.960 And then there's the concept book language, which is like 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.839 are these words arranged in specific orders? I guess you're 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:59.280 saying that we're not quite sure where in that spectrum 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:00.640 dolphins are yet. 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:01.880 That's correct. 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:05.520 So imagine going into your friend's house and having dinner 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:09.000 at the dinner table and recording the conversation with the 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:13.080 larger family structure, and you play it later. Would you 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:16.719 know if they're talking about the mashed potatoes or are 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:19.199 they talking about what the kids did in school today? 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:19.480 Right? 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.800 Or what are your plans for tomorrow? So we can say, yeah, 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:25.600 the dolphins make these sounds when they're forging, but are 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:28.360 they just hunting sounds and this helps them find their prey? 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.640 Are they saying, hey, Stubby, there's a big fish over here, 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:34.480 or let's go yesterday to that same place where we 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.720 found the good fish. We don't know, right, And that's 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.960 part of the key to language, right. So that's what 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:41.520 we don't know. 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:46.960 So there's a lot we don't know about how dolphins communicate. 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:49.600 But one thing we do know that it's very rare 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:53.000 in the animal kingdom, is that dolphins have names for 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:53.480 each other. 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:57.600 One thing that we know about their communication that is 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:01.679 very cool is that they produce in individually specific sounds 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.559 that are called signature whistles, and these are the closest 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:09.360 analog to our names in the animal world. So each 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:13.360 dolphin has their own specific whistle. That's why it's called signature, 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.000 you know, kind of like our signature is our own thing, 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:21.520 and so that's individual identifiers. And so that's been something 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:25.080 that's been really interesting to study. And they use them 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.240 in some ways like we do, in other ways not 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:31.400 so for example, they will often produce their own signature whistle, 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:33.520 which is not something that we typically do because we 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.200 don't usually walk around saying our own names a lot. 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:39.840 But we also usually can see each other, whereas they 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:43.000 usually can't see each other. So because the water is 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:45.559 very murky, if they're sort of spread out feeding, that 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:48.320 what we might often hear them sort of calling out 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:50.560 occasionally I'm over here, I'm over here, I'm over here, 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:53.240 just by using their own signature whistle, or maybe they're 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:55.719 meeting another group as they travel and they want to, 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:57.959 you know, say who they are something like that. 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:00.959 Is it sort of like if we humans we're all 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.200 living in the dark or in a giant cave we 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:06.760 can't see, we would be basically doing the same thing 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:09.599 all the time, saying like, hey, I'm here. It's hoorheyge 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.160 or hey here hey kind of is that what you mean? 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:14.640 Yeah, I think we would have to all be saying 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.640 our names periodically because we couldn't see each other, and 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:20.560 you know, we normally rely on site. But they don't 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:22.880 have that. Wow, I mean, they don't have that capacity 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:25.240 just because the water is generally very muky. 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:28.280 It's just like you said, it's about checking in with 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:37.680 the rest of the group. Yeah, So dolphins have names. 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:41.640 Each dolphin has a sound that identifies them and they 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.320 say it a lot. About fifty percent of all the 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:48.040 calls of dolphin makes is their signature whistle. As doctor 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:51.960 Saying mentioned, it's hard to see underwater dolphins of sonar, 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:54.760 so they can tell where other dolphins are, but they 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:58.440 can't visually recognize each other. So one reason for having 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:01.440 these names and saying them that so they can keep 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.360 track of each other. And actually, we've thought about these 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:09.280 names since the nineteen sixties. I guess at what age 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:12.760 does that name get cemented or generated. 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:16.720 It's certainly usually within the first three months. That's been 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:20.400 documented through actually studies of animals held in captivity by 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:23.640 the people who discovered signature whistles. Melba and David Caldwell. 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:27.000 They discovered signatre whistles actually back in the nineteen sixties, 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:30.080 and in that work they sampled more than one hundred 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:33.400 dolphins that were held in different facilities at the time, 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:36.920 and they would record them in isolation, so just you know, 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:41.360 briefly put a dolphin in one place outside of other dolphins, 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:43.160 so that they were able to say, Okay, this whistle 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.320 is definitely coming from this dolphins And in that context, 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:48.920 they tend to make a lot of signature whistles because 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:53.200 they're probably trying to contact their groupmates, saying hey, I'm 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.840 over here, I'm over here, I'm over here. So usually 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:58.720 if you isolate a dolphin, you will pretty quickly be 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:00.640 able to identify it's signature whistle. 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:03.000 Yeah. I guess if I get separated from a group 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:05.400 in a giant dark cave, I would be like, hey, 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:08.520 I'm here, I'm here, I'm here, or here trying to 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:09.600 get back right. 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:11.800 I mean, they're very social animals, So. 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:15.240 Each dolphin has their own signature whistle. Do dolphins ever 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:17.560 say the signature whistle of another dolphin? 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:21.200 Yes, they do. They copy each other's signature whistles. We've 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.840 seen that quite commonly so there's maybe two animals that 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:28.120 we're recording, and sometimes we'll see one of them make 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:30.920 the other dolphin signature whistle, which is probably sort of 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:33.160 a way of being like, hey, you over there or whatever, 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:35.560 something like that, come on over my way, or who 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.000 knows what you know, something along those lines. But we 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:42.360 are super interested in trying to see whether dolphins actually 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.920 make signature whistles of animals that aren't with them. That 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:49.440 would be, you know, something pretty exciting because that would 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:53.120 really suggest that they have sort of a representation of 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.320 that animal in their head. You know. It's different from 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:58.920 if you're with another animal and they're making their whistle 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:01.200 and you make their whistle back at some point to them, 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:03.800 you're hearing it, you're sort of copying it. That's really 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:07.000 different than like being swimming around and maybe thinking like, oh, 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:09.440 I wonder if you know Bob's here, and then making 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:12.000 Bob's whistle or something like that. It's a bit of 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.439 a holy grail, honestly, and studying animal communication is this 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:20.520 idea of whether animals have these abstract representations for things 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:22.639 or other animals interesting. 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:24.359 It's sort of like if you and I are in 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:26.800 a dark cave together, I might be like Orte here, 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:28.919 Jorge and Hoorte, and you might be saying Leayla here, 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:31.760 Layla here, here, Leila, and then I might start saying 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:34.800 Laila Leila also just to sort of like maybe echo 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.160 or connect with you. Yeah, like right, But if you're 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:40.800 not there and I say your name, that could be 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:42.800 maybe a sign that I'm thinking of you and that 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.080 I know that you're an individual person and I'm wondering 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:45.760 where you are. 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:49.760 Maybe right exactly, or even potentially talking about me to 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:53.520 somebody else, although that's getting a whole other layer further. 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:56.240 Down that I'm not dolphin gossip, yeah exactly. 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:59.640 I'm not trying to imply that that's happening yet to anyway. 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:02.080 Who knows. We might yet discover that, but yeah, that 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:05.359 would be a pretty cool thing if we were able 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:06.359 to document that. 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:11.520 So those are signature whistles. Another cool thing we've learned 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:13.760 about how dolphins talk to each other is that they 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:15.399 can have an accent. 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:18.480 Although there is one other thing about signature whistles. I 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.359 might just mention quickly because it's so fascinating. But just 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:23.240 a couple of years ago, we did a study where 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:27.399 we found that mother dolphins use something similar to what 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.800 we call mother eaves, where they will modify their signature 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:35.159 whistles when they're communicating with their calves by raising the 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:37.760 highest frequency of their whistles. So it's kind of like 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.280 what we do when we're talking with like infants or children. 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:43.760 Human caregivers tend to talk and kind of a more 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:48.439 sing songy voice. I pitch sing songy voice, and so 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:51.680 it really seems like dolphins do a similar thing. 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:54.560 It's sort of like if I was with a group 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:57.160 of fans, that'd be like, or here a porge, this 0:18:57.200 --> 0:18:59.320 is Orge. But if I was trying to get to 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:03.120 my kid to see, like here's daddy, Daddy's here, Daddy's here? 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:04.680 Is that kind of you? What do you mean to 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:04.960 make that? 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:07.639 I think? I mean, they're still saying the same name, 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:12.080 but they are inflecting it differently, And it's potentially like 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.000 with human mother ease, it seems like there's something about 0:19:15.040 --> 0:19:18.560 that kind of more inflected speech that engages the children 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:20.720 in some way, you know, to sort of be like, 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:23.879 maybe it's that they know, Okay, they're talking to me now, 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:26.800 you know that this sound is directed to me rather 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:29.840 than to somebody else. I mean, that's one possible hypothesis. 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:32.480 When mom makes her whistle a little bit higher, the 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:35.919 calf is like, Okay, she's she's telling me something now, 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:37.920 you know, rather than maybe to one of the other 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:47.359 dolphins that's around here. But that's just a hypothesis. I mean, 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.879 we really don't know how it might funk him for dolphins, 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:53.600 but it was just really cool to find that they 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:55.200 do something similar to what we do. 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:59.199 Yeah, that's fascinating. So when the kid was around, they 0:19:59.240 --> 0:19:59.840 would have this. 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.679 They would increase the frequency of highest frequency of their 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:05.679 whistles so it would go up to a higher pitch 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:09.200 when they were communicating with their calf versus when they 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:10.960 were not communicating with a calf. 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:15.800 Yes, it seems that dolphins also baby talk when talking 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:18.720 to babies. Okay, so that's what we know about how 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:21.480 dolphins talk to each other. Now the question is can 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:24.480 we use what we know to talk to them? Could 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:27.320 we use AI to decode the words they use or 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:30.280 try to teach them new words, or what would happen 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:32.840 to be said their names back to them. As it 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:35.760 turns out, both our experts have tried to do this. 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.119 So when we come back, we'll talk about actually talking 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:41.760 to dolphins, and I don't want to oversell it, but 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:45.760 it's going to be fantastic. Okay, that was a dull 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:49.720 fin joke. The point is, stay with us, give you 0:20:49.880 --> 0:21:10.560 right back, Hey, welcome back. We're talking about talking to dolphins, 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:13.600