Skip to main content
Journal cover image

Bottlenose dolphins exchange signature whistles when meeting at sea.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Quick, NJ; Janik, VM
Published in: Proceedings. Biological sciences
July 2012

The bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, is one of very few animals that, through vocal learning, can invent novel acoustic signals and copy whistles of conspecifics. Furthermore, receivers can extract identity information from the invented part of whistles. In captivity, dolphins use such signature whistles while separated from the rest of their group. However, little is known about how they use them at sea. If signature whistles are the main vehicle to transmit identity information, then dolphins should exchange these whistles in contexts where groups or individuals join. We used passive acoustic localization during focal boat follows to observe signature whistle use in the wild. We found that stereotypic whistle exchanges occurred primarily when groups of dolphins met and joined at sea. A sequence analysis verified that most of the whistles used during joins were signature whistles. Whistle matching or copying was not observed in any of the joins. The data show that signature whistle exchanges are a significant part of a greeting sequence that allows dolphins to identify conspecifics when encountering them in the wild.

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

Published In

Proceedings. Biological sciences

DOI

EISSN

1471-2954

ISSN

0962-8452

Publication Date

July 2012

Volume

279

Issue

1738

Start / End Page

2539 / 2545

Related Subject Headings

  • Vocalization, Animal
  • Sound Spectrography
  • Pattern Recognition, Physiological
  • Echolocation
  • Bottle-Nosed Dolphin
  • Behavior, Animal
  • Animals
  • Animal Communication
  • 41 Environmental sciences
  • 31 Biological sciences
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Quick, N. J., & Janik, V. M. (2012). Bottlenose dolphins exchange signature whistles when meeting at sea. Proceedings. Biological Sciences, 279(1738), 2539–2545. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.2537
Quick, Nicola J., and Vincent M. Janik. “Bottlenose dolphins exchange signature whistles when meeting at sea.Proceedings. Biological Sciences 279, no. 1738 (July 2012): 2539–45. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.2537.
Quick NJ, Janik VM. Bottlenose dolphins exchange signature whistles when meeting at sea. Proceedings Biological sciences. 2012 Jul;279(1738):2539–45.
Quick, Nicola J., and Vincent M. Janik. “Bottlenose dolphins exchange signature whistles when meeting at sea.Proceedings. Biological Sciences, vol. 279, no. 1738, July 2012, pp. 2539–45. Epmc, doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.2537.
Quick NJ, Janik VM. Bottlenose dolphins exchange signature whistles when meeting at sea. Proceedings Biological sciences. 2012 Jul;279(1738):2539–2545.
Journal cover image

Published In

Proceedings. Biological sciences

DOI

EISSN

1471-2954

ISSN

0962-8452

Publication Date

July 2012

Volume

279

Issue

1738

Start / End Page

2539 / 2545

Related Subject Headings

  • Vocalization, Animal
  • Sound Spectrography
  • Pattern Recognition, Physiological
  • Echolocation
  • Bottle-Nosed Dolphin
  • Behavior, Animal
  • Animals
  • Animal Communication
  • 41 Environmental sciences
  • 31 Biological sciences