The dolphins are called by its proper name - ElEspectador.com

The discovery represents a step forward in understanding the complex communication system of dolphins. / 123rf

Science has revealed the incredible similarity between human behavior and the dolphins: recently discovered the ability of these animals to think ahead, to recognize in a mirror and manifest an apparent suffering death of a child.

This time, a study by the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland, proves that, like dolphins visibility is limited, develop a whistle own, still indecipherable to humans, which allows them to be marked and placed in front of the other members of the group.

funny thing is that the sound of each dolphin, something like acoustic signature or name can be followed by others of the same species, who only answered the owner of each whistle to communicate. So, the finding of Scottish scientists has suggested that a dolphin can respond when another calls him by his name playing his whistle.

“We have long thought that mimic the whistle could be used to attract the attention of other dolphins,” says one of the study’s authors, Vincent Janik. However, this sound, which last between 0.3 and 1.5 seconds, has a very specific characteristics that functions as a fingerprint and allows these cetaceans express a kind of “I am, here I am, what do you ? “within their group.

Upon discovery, Fernando Trujillo, director Omacha Foundation, which fights for the defense mechanism of the pink dolphins of the Amazon, says that “the scientific world is very interesting and valuable because it allows us to be closer to understanding the very complex communication system of these species. “

biologist notes that the dolphin language remains an enigma for those trying to understand, because of its unique characteristics: “Your brain is larger, its memory and storage capacity is higher, have unique sensory skills, language , cultural transmission and structured societies. There are even those who say that the only thing they lack are hands to be as people. “

Trujillo cites the case of a group of Australian researchers who surprised some dolphins teaching their young to use a sea sponge when they went hunting to protect their sensitive snout of sand from the sea and the thorns some poisonous fish. This behavior implies an advanced degree of animal intelligence, no less than one of the elements that distinguish humans from other animals: the use of tools.

Ingrid Visser, of the Research Foundation of the Orcas in Tutukaka, New Zealand, has seen bottlenose dolphins and orcas carrying their dead, as interpreted as a kind of mourning and regret. “We know that cetaceans have Von Economo neurons (related to cognitive abilities present only in humans), which have been associated with the lament of death in people,” says Visser.

Meanwhile, researchers who were working with wild dolphins off the Scottish coast say their study “represents an interesting parallel with humans and the apparent need for these voice tags in maintaining group cohesion”, which may be at the root of the evolution of their complex cognitive and communication systems.