A Dolphin By Any Other Name 248
SloppyElvis writes "CNN is reporting that scientists have proven that Dolphins can communicate with each other by name. From the article: 'researchers synthesized signature whistles with the caller's voice features removed and played them to dolphins through an underwater speaker' to which the mammals responded. This form of identification in language was previously only known to exist in the human world." Thankfully they still haven't evolved opposable thumbs.
Certainly not unheard of in captivity... (Score:5, Interesting)
Intelligence and symbol identification/use definitely seems to me to be a general phenomenon larger than mammalian life.
It would be interesting to repeat similar experiments with intelligent species of wild birds to see if they generate unique sound identification that they may use to identify third-"persons" non-visually in some way. Most likely birds would use such ability to immitate eachother for social manipulation - but the conclusions of the use of such symbolic proto-language would still be meaningful.
Ryan Fenton
Re:Ever heard of parrots ? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Certainly not unheard of in captivity... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Certainly not unheard of in captivity... (Score:2, Interesting)
Parrots are mimickers- and not much more; they lack the brain capacity to do most of the things that people claim they can do. Names aren't sounds; they have a lot more meaning if they are truly names. A couple of days ago when this story hit the AP (yes, a few days ago), I read that the researchers went to extensive lengths to see if it was the exact sound, inflection, etc. that dolphins responded to.
My cat comes running (usually) when you call his name (Tucker). When we call him, we all generally do it in the same way- two syllable, certain inflection, etc. However, he'll also come running if you call "Sttuuuuuuuupiiiiddd!" with the same inflection/tone. You could probably sing two notes and he'd come running. That's not a name- that's a "whenever I hear something that sounds sorta like that in tone, something good will be waiting for me" (food, scratch on the ears, or his favorite- the grooming comb.) He's very sensitive to tone; say his name sharply and his body language makes it clear he knows he's in trouble, and even if he sees the grooming comb in my hand, he'll give serious thought to heading for the hills.
If a friend is over and calls his name- not knowing how we call him- he won't come. Period. Even if he's feeling sociable (sometimes he'll show up a few minutes later to check things out, see if he can get a free ear scratch, etc.) Simply put: he doesn't recognize his "name", he recognizes sounds. I'll still recognize my name even if someone with a heavy accent calls my name, etc.
The researchers found the names were used extensively, and more importantly, were not reproduced exactly- each dolphin had its own inflection on each other's names, and dolphins still responded when the inflection was removed.
flipper ~ modified hand (Score:2, Interesting)
It is interesting to note that whales/dophin have hand bone structure. These mammals evolved from those that were once land animals. As a result the flipper is actually a modified hand structure.
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Re:Certainly not unheard of in captivity... (Score:4, Interesting)
To make an example, as far as I know in languages like Chinese intonation plays a tremendous role - two completely different words might sound exactly the same to us - one might be our name, the other someting else, but that doesn't mean that we don't know our names.
I have had many pets and have came to the conclusion that animals are much closer to us than we are used to assuming. They can think (albeit very primitively), they have memory, they make plans, etc - to say that it is all instinct and mimicking would be a vast oversimplification. This is a dangerous line of thinking though - a pig is as smart as a cat, but I do love eating pork chop.
Re:Ever heard of parrots ? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Certainly not unheard of in captivity... (Score:3, Interesting)
It was amazing how much that bird knew though.
Re:Ever heard of parrots ? (Score:5, Interesting)
To answer your second question, the answer is probably yes. Not only that, they will develop their own language [columbia.edu].
Everybody already knows this (Score:2, Interesting)
Dolphins can ALSO create rings using their blowhole. They create what is essentially a vortex with perfect buyoncy (sp?). They can be tossed around like toys without "popping" due to the physics of the rings. I've tried to do this with my nose, and I fail every time. This is not a conspiracy.
Dolphins are smart. That's why the Navy hires them.
Bubble ring link: http://www.earthtrust.org/delrings.html [earthtrust.org]
parrots context-correct utterances (Score:5, Interesting)
Most of what my macaw and my parents' african grey falls into this catagory. Obviously, they learned "Hello" and "good morning" because those things are said to them. It is even clear that their understanding of these sounds is different from the literal meaning; our birds will use these comments any time they want to greet you or initiate contact.
What is more interesting is the novel constructions and novel useage; i.e. the new uses they find for an existing word or phrase and the entirely new phrases make by combining words in new ways. Examples:
Re:Ever heard of parrots ? (Score:1, Interesting)
The use of names is not related to innate linguistic abilities. It's a social construct.
Carl Sagan and Dolphins (Score:2, Interesting)
Makes you wonder how many times they tried before they gave up.
And also why the chimps don't have it yet.
Re:Ever heard of parrots ? (Score:2, Interesting)
My friend observed this a number of times and was able to replicate the individual miaows to call individual kittens.
So it seems even cats can have and use individual names.
Re:Ever heard of parrots ? (Score:3, Interesting)
The funny thing is they use only one of my parakeets' name to address all the parakeets generally, whereas each parakeet recognize its name. Given the obvious visual difference between the little birds, I don't really understand why they call them all with the same name.
They sometimes have heated arguments with each other, in which they use all this vocabulary with the proper tone...