Language is the medium to communicate ideas and thoughts with each other. This medium is thought to have been developed by humans to facilitate societal behavior. However, talking about the fishes, the most sociable and friendly would be the dolphins and they have a language of their own too.
Dolphins were always thought to have been communicating with each other through the shrill sounds they made. The fact is now confirmed with a study to support it.
According to the New Scientist, a project to study dolphins in Australia has identified 200 different types of whistles made by dolphins and has assigned each whistle to different behaviors. In a three year study, sounds of bottlenose dolphins living off coast were recorded by Liz Hawkins of the Whale research center at Southern Cross University in New South Wales. They recorded 1,647 whistling sounds of the dolphins and studied them to find different sounds made for different behaviors. The sounds made when the dolphins were swimming recorded to be ’sine’ in 57 percent cases. While eating or resting the sound recorded was flat-toned or raised. The exclusive tone that Liz Hawkins recorded while the dolphins rode the waves created by her boat was like a child shouting ‘weee’ with excitement.
Ms. Hawkins explains that for any communication to be termed as a language it should be complex and have a similar pattern linking it with certain behaviors. The sounds made by dolphins qualified in each of these criteria and hence can be termed as a language. Communicative or not, dolphins sure are the friendliest of the Pisces Species.
Image Credit: Winwenger
Via: In The News
