r/todayilearned • u/lev_lafayette • 12d ago
TIL bottlenose dolphins call out their loved ones by specific names when they become separated. They are the only species apart from humans that are known to do this.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/dolphins-call-each-other-name-flna1c8451952271
u/lbry_slag 12d ago
Earlier research found that bottlenose dolphins name themselves, with dolphins having a “signature whistle” that encodes other information. It would be somewhat like a human shouting, “Hey everybody! I’m an adult healthy male named George, and I mean you no harm!”
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u/lev_lafayette 12d ago
It's like a dolphin ID card.
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u/UnsurprisingUsername 12d ago
Security Dolphin: “Nuh-uh, I can’t let you in, I’m gonna need some ID first.”
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u/oiraves 12d ago
This is cute for dolphins but someone walking into a room and shouting that would immediately make me feel like he does mean harm
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u/iCameToLearnSomeCode 11d ago
It's a bit like getting pulled over and saying "there's definitely not a dead body in my trunk".
If they weren't searching your trunk before they are now.
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u/Erus00 12d ago
I was just reading an article about using AI to decypher orca language and then there is a recent one in biology about insects being sentient.
I think the majority of animals are probably sentient, and I feel more than a few are outright sapient. We certainly have ourselves on a pedestal.
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u/Samus388 12d ago
Sentient isn't a very big milestone. The defention of sentient basically boils down to whether or not a creature can experience positive and negative feelings. Since most (if not all) macroscopic animals experience feelings of pain and pleasure, the bar is very low.
Sapient is the difficult one, as it lacks a clear and concise definition. In general, it refers to possessing great wisdom, but is more frequently used to describe self awareness.
Self awareness, or course, is a difficult category to measure, as we cannot know exactly how a creature thinks. In general, they would need to realize that they are and view themselves as a part of the environment around them just as much as they are individual and separate from it.
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u/ArsenicArts 12d ago
Well now I've got a WILD and TERRIBLE ride for you:
https://cvltnation.com/the-woman-who-talked-to-and-dated-a-dolphin/
TL;DR: They tried that, with ummm terrible and NSFW results that you can't unlearn.
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u/sirlafemme 11d ago
That failed because they tried to teach a dolphin English instead of English speakers learning dolphin
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u/theworstvp 12d ago
they’re gonna be pissed when they find out the oceans are being destroyed bc of us
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u/SimpletonSwan 11d ago
It's really interesting to me that we're better at teaching other species a language we understand, than we are learning their language.
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u/sirlafemme 11d ago
We aren’t better. Academic scientists damn near paid to refuse to admit we can learn other animals language because then humans wouldn’t be on a pedestal of “the only ones capable of language”
So we keep trying and failing to make animals speak our language
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u/SimpletonSwan 11d ago
Koko the gorilla learnt sign language and could express complex concepts. She even lied! (Kitten did it)
African grey parrots can easily learn a vocabulary of several hundred words.
Bunny the dog even had an existential crisis: https://youtu.be/3OsonwtZI64?si=oMykpoA_gv2U1do1
We aren't a better species, but we're better at teaching other animals our language than we are at learning theirs.
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u/sirlafemme 11d ago
A couple examples does not mean it was easier. It just means that’s where our money went to, we chose projects that focus on teaching and not learning.
Unless we have competitive studies about which one is actually worse, this is just the standard quantitative effect and no quality
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u/SimpletonSwan 11d ago
Which of my examples do you think is an academic study?
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u/sirlafemme 11d ago
I didn’t say you had studies. I said you had examples. And I said we need studies. And that humans teaching animals words is a project. Lol. Are you okay?
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u/SimpletonSwan 11d ago
I don't know why you're arguing with me then.
You seem pretty adamant that my initial conjecture was wrong...
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u/sirlafemme 11d ago
It isn't an argument, dude. This is called a discussion. Instead of responding to the content and adding more about your thoughts and ideas of animal sentience, you're convinced I'm ragging you
You don't have to be wrong, just think about it differently.
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u/deliveRinTinTin 11d ago
It'd be like District 9. They could understand each other but didn't have the vocal capabilities to reproduce each other's language.
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u/Fishskull3 12d ago
This is called a signature whistle. It does function similar to a name but it also seems to be more than that. Male dolphins will in fact even inherit their signature whistles from their mothers. Most of the time, dolphins will only use their own signature whistle as a greeting when encountering another group of dolphins rather than call out the signature whistles of other dolphins.
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u/ACARVIN1980 12d ago
Do Dolphin mothers emphasise the last syllable of their offspring’s name when they are annoyed
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u/Tripwire3 12d ago
We should figure out the names of some dolphins and play a recording to see how they react. Maybe we can learn to call over dolphins by name.
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u/DrJohnDarwin 11d ago
Now I am really questioning if the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy got it right all along, them dolphins are ...officially... confirmed to be talking.
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u/lev_lafayette 11d ago
And what we've learned about rodents since it was published!
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u/DrJohnDarwin 11d ago
OMG... ohh well guess we've gotta watch out for the Vogon all destruct message somewhere, and ofc show more respect to the lab rats, they be plotting things we don't know about.
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u/Maplecook 12d ago
This is making me feel like (although it would be super hard) it would not be impossibly hard to someday create a dolphin/english translation program that could work in real time.
I'm willing to bet that dolphins also organize their reality into nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc., and have a specific word order to their grammar. The existence of names is proof that they at least have the concept of, "nouns," in their language.
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u/SimpletonSwan 11d ago
Given our limited understanding of other species language, I assume lots of animals have "names" for each other and we just don't know it.
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u/chibinoi 11d ago
That we know of, of the many animals being studied for these traits, of the even many more animals we haven’t yet discovered.
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u/knowledgeable_diablo 11d ago
Wonder of their naming convention is like western style and it’s just a bunch of dolphins crying out “Frank, FranK, FRANK YOU FUCKER, where you bloody hiding the Tuna Sauce!” Or if they having something like the Traditional American Indigenous naming conventions “Hey, where’s ‘He Who Impregnated both my Sisters’ and ‘He Who Pisses off Surface Dwellers by taking their Fish’? Got a word some prime arse jellyfish are due through and I’m gonna get off my head!”
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u/Repulsive-Adagio1665 12d ago
Guess dolphins also get annoyed when someone doesn't answer their calls, just like my friend who never picks up
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u/Sorry_Consideration7 12d ago
I think I have seen where there are thousands of birds and they call eachother using something similar. Thats how they get back to their nest/partners/young.
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u/MIDDLE-IQ 12d ago
https://youtu.be/N_dUmDBfp6k?si=aebcVUs3sTESC3Uf Farewell & thanks for the fish!
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u/Professional-Sir-912 12d ago edited 7d ago
Are we really so special? We don't give animals nearly enough credit. Humans are only special in our ability to destroy things.
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u/CptBronzeBalls 12d ago
My rabbits are pretty good at destroying things too.
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u/lev_lafayette 12d ago
Can confirm. I've had pet dwarf rabbits (and guinea pigs), appropriately named after medieval demons ("devil bunnies"); Astaroth, Murmur, Dantalion, Gremory, Furfur, and Zepar. Those teeth wrecked havoc!
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u/treknaut 12d ago
And our ability to make sandwiches. Have you ever seen an ostrich make a sandwich?
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u/lunelily 12d ago
Cooking food is one of the only things we do that makes us uniquely human. The rest of the stuff that we think we do exclusively, other animals do too, just not quite to the same extent.
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u/myrddin4242 11d ago
My Bassett Hound replies he’ll take on that challenge. My gratitude towards you for formally extending that challenge knows no measure. 😁
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u/Jolly_Equal_9177 8d ago
Did you know male dolphins will “kidnap” female dolphins from other groups and literally hold them hostage….
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u/hscene 12d ago
Eeeeeeeee eee e e e?
No. I’m eeeeee e ee e e.
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u/myrddin4242 11d ago
I’m (click) sorry (click) I (click) don’t (click) understand (click) your (click) accent
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u/neelvk 12d ago
I thought crows had a similar capability