Chatty dolphins
Dolphin acoustics
Dolphins communicate with whistles, clicks and buzzes. In a world where visibility is rarely more than a few meters, sound is the way to go to find each other… or other species!
Similarly to bats, dolphins use echolocation to precisely detect their prey. That is the reason behind their bulbous head: a sac of oil called the melon helps produce their whistles and clicks.
Little is known about the significance of each sound… however, we do know dolphins use something similar to a name: the “signature whistle”. Each individual dolphin has its own signature whistle, and calves will often imitate their mothers’, with their own unique tempo of course!