Each dolphin makes its own, distinctive whistle, according to a new study. Other dolphins will imitate that whistle, presumably to contact and keep in touch with that particular dolphin. While he hesitates to say the dolphins are actually using language, the researcher said the study shows dolphins have a clear and consistent vocabulary and are able to identify one another as individuals. They always use the same call.
Some people call it a name.
But because the dolphins seem to develop their own signature whistles, Janik said the calls are more like Internet screen names or handles. Janik studied wild bottlenose dolphins off the Moray Firth, on Scotland's coast. He recorded 1,719 whistles using six hydrophones and a computer-based method for finding individual dolphins as they made the calls. The dolphins were coming into the bay to catch salmon. Obviously at some point they want to get together again.