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Further Insights Into Postpartum Signature Whistle Use
Individual vocal signatures help mothers recognize and provide care to their young in many animals. Mother-offspring recognition is particularly important when young animals are mobile immediately after birth, and separations can occur. Bottlenose dolphins are known to produce unique identity signals – signature whistles – to help individuals recognize one another. In this study, we show that new dolphin mothers produce their signature whistle at much higher rates immediately after their calf is born, and continue to do so for up to a month. This increase helps the calf recognize its mother and allows mothers and calves to reunite if they become separated.
For the full study email research@dolphins.org
King, S. L., Guarino, E., Donegan, K., Hecksher, J., & Jaakkola, K.(2016). Further insights into postpartum signature whistle use in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Marine Mammal Science, 32: 1458–1469.