Dolphin Tales: Gotta go, mom’s calling
Remember as a kid when you were out playing with your friends in the neighborhood and heard your mom’s voice calling you to come home for dinner?
Your friends heard their mom’s voices, too, and we all went home to our moms.
And remember when you were in trouble, mom called you by your full name? Well, it appears that Atlantic bottlenose dolphin moms (Tursipos truncates) also have distinct ways of calling their calves.
Each dolphin mom’s voice is unique. A mother dolphin may whistle to her calf almost continuously for several days after giving birth. This acoustic imprinting helps the calf learn to identify its mother. If the situation is dire, and the calf may be in danger, the call of the mother will be a distress signal, but dolphins communicate in non-threatening situations as well.
Trainers and marine biologists at Dolphins Plus, a dolphin research and interaction center in Key Largo, Flor-ida, conducted an experiment using three adult female dolphins and their three calves. Each mother produced individually distinctive calls for their individual calves that incorporated the mother’s signature whistle but often also involved additional whistles and clicks. Rather than herding their calves physically, each calf responded to their mother’s call and returned to her, even when an older sibling and other calves were in the vicinity.
An infant dolphin begins to develop a “signature whistle” shortly after being born. Calves have been reported to develop whistles similar to their mothers. Dolphins whistle through their blowholes at frequencies almost too high for humans to hear but dolphins can hear each other up to 8 miles under the surface of the water. Scientists can identify individual dolphins by looking at their whistle shapes on a sonogram.
Capt. Cathy Eagle has spent over 40 years boating in our local waters. As a professional charter captain she specializes in dolphin and nature tours. Visit CaptainCathy.com or call 239 994-2572.