Dolphins can mimic friends’ whistles

Science : Dolphins, which are known for their complex cognitive and social behavior, appear to be able to call each otherâmdash;by whistling. Stephanie King of the University of Saint Andrews in the UK and her colleagues studied recordings made by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program of 250 wild bottlenose dolphins that were briefly captured between 1984 and 2009; they also looked at 4 captive dolphins. All dolphins have their own distinctive whistle, learned from their mothers. But the dolphins in the study also could imitate the whistle of their closest social partnerâmdash;such as mothers and their calves, or allied males. “They produce the copies when they are separated, which we think shows that they want to reunite with a particular individual,” said King. Now her group hopes to expand its study beyond captured dolphins to see how dolphins use their whistling ability in the wild.