BBC: Dolphins 'have their own names'

[Rigorous Intuition]

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Dolphins 'have their own names'</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>8 May 2006<br><br>Dolphins communicate like humans by calling each other by "name", scientists in Fife have found.<br><br>The mammals are able to recognise themselves and other members of the same species as individuals with separate identities, using whistles.<br><br>St Andrews University researchers studying in Florida discovered bottlenose dolphins used names rather than sound to identify each other.<br><br>The three-year-study was funded by the Royal Society of London.<br><br>Dr Vincent Janik, of the Sea Mammal Unit at St Andrews University, said they conducted the research on wild dolphins. <br><br>He said: "We captured wild dolphins using nets when they came near the shore.<br><br>"Then in the shallow water we recorded their whistles before synthesising them on a computer so that we had a computer voice of a dolphin.<br><br>"Then we played it back to the dolphins and we found they responded. This showed us that the dolphins know each other's signature whistle instead of just the voice.<br><br>"I think it is a very exciting discovery because it means that these animals have evolved the same abilities as humans.<br><br>"Now we know they have labels for each other like we do." <br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/4750471.stm">news.bbc.co.uk</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> <p></p><i></i>

[monster]

Wow, that's hella cool, but now I have so many more questions!<br><br>Who names them, their parents? The tribe? Themselves? Do the names mean anything? <br><br>Does this ability make them smarter than our president? <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=monster@rigorousintuition>monster</A> at: 5/11/06 11:14 pm<br></i>

[DireStrike]

What? Now, I'm not a scientist, but it seems that they:<br><br>-Recorded dolphin sounds<br>-Played them back to other dolphins<br>-Those dolphins responded<br><br>How in the hell does that equate to them having names? Either Vincent Janik dumbed down his methods and findings to the point of being useless noise, or he doesn't know what he's about. <p></p><i></i>