Dolphins Know Other Dolphins By Name Even After Decades Apart
Bottlenose Dolphins Wikimedia Commons Even humans have trouble remembering the names of people they met 20 years ago. But not dolphins! Last month, a study indicated that dolphins call each other by names, of a sort: they have a particular whistle unique to each dolphin, and when a dolphin hears its own whistle-name called, it responds. And now a study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that dolphins can remember the names of other dolphins for decades. That'd be useful if you want to grab an old buddy and go conching. Jason Bruck, at the University of Chicago, tested 43 bottlenose dolphins of varying ages that have been shuffled around, tank to tank. The dolphins had all lived with each other at some point, but for different lengths of time; some had lived together for a few months, some for years. Some lived together at the time of...