一项研究说，瓶鼻海豚在自然交流期间能够使用有特征的口哨与社会同伴打交道。在模仿环境中的声音从而发展出独特的呼叫的动物中间，鹦鹉和海豚最突出，因为它们在实验环境下具有使用学到的信号命名物体的能力。为了确定这种能力是不是瓶鼻海豚自然交流系统的一部分，Stephanie King 和Vincent Janik检验了海豚是否使用有特征的口哨——独立于语音的呼叫，对于个体是独特的，并且这些动物在海中相遇的时候会互相呼唤——用于与个体打交道。这组作者跟踪了苏格兰沿海东部的一个野生的、自由生活的海豚种群，监测了它们对不同口哨的反应。这组科研人员或者回放记录下来的一只海豚自己的有特征的口哨的一个合成版本，或者回放来自同一个种群的熟悉的海豚的口哨，或者来自不同种群的不熟悉的海豚的口哨。野生瓶鼻海豚通过应答呼叫从而对它们自己的特征口哨做出反应，但是它们对其他的口哨没有做出反应。这组作者说，这些发现提示海豚可能使用有特征的口哨作为标签从而与同一物种的个体打交道或者进行接触，而且对身份信号的使用类似于人类命名个体的习惯。（生物谷 Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐的英文摘要
PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1304459110
Bottlenose dolphins can use learned vocal labels to address each other
Stephanie L. King and Vincent M. Janik
In animal communication research, vocal labeling refers to incidents in which an animal consistently uses a specific acoustic signal when presented with a specific object or class of objects. Labeling with learned signals is a foundation of human language but is notably rare in nonhuman communication systems. In natural animal systems, labeling often occurs with signals that are not influenced by learning, such as in alarm and food calling. There is a suggestion, however, that some species use learned signals to label conspecific individuals in their own communication system when mimicking individually distinctive calls. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are a promising animal for exploration in this area because they are capable of vocal production learning and can learn to use arbitrary signals to report the presence or absence of objects. Bottlenose dolphins develop their own unique identity signal, the signature whistle. This whistle encodes individual identity independently of voice features. The copying of signature whistles may therefore allow animals to label or address one another. Here, we show that wild bottlenose dolphins respond to hearing a copy of their own signature whistle by calling back. Animals did not respond to whistles that were not their own signature. This study provides compelling evidence that a dolphin’s learned identity signal is used as a label when addressing conspecifics. Bottlenose dolphins therefore appear to be unique as nonhuman mammals to use learned signals as individually specific labels for different social companions in their own natural communication system.
