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Maternal Signature Whistle Use Aids Mother-Calf Reunions
Female dolphins and their calves use their highly individualized signature whistles to identify and maintain contact with one another. It was previously known that when yearling calves separate from their mom, they produce their own whistle. However, little was known about the mechanisms a female dolphin may employ when she wants to reunite with her calf. In this study, we asked a female dolphin to retrieve either her wandering calf or series of inanimate objects (as a control). Unlike the way human mothers call their children, our results show that a dolphin mother used her own vocal signature to actively recruit her calf, and produced no such signal when asked to retrieve the objects. The results highlight that signature whistles are not only used in broadcasting individual identity, but that maternal signature whistle use is important in facilitating mother-calf reunions.
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King, S.L., Guarino, E., Keaton, L., Erb, L., & Jaakkola, K. (2016). Maternal signature whistle use aids mother-calf reunions in a bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus. Behavioural Processes, 126, 64-70.