How do dolphins communicate?

Dolphins are highly intelligent and playful aquatic mammals. Most dolphins are marine where others live in freshwater. These social mammals who live as pods, use exciting ways to communicate with each other.

Since they live in underwater, their vision is limited. Therefore, dolphins emit low- or high-pitched waves to sense objects around them by detecting the echoes of the emitted frequency. This method is known as echolocation or biological sonar. Dolphins usually use higher frequencies to limit the distance their sounds can travel. These signals help dolphins to picture the object, the direction it’s travelling and as well as its position. It helps them locate food and more importantly, predators.

Dolphins make whistles and clicking sounds. Clicks are used to identify their surroundings through echolocation, while they use whistles to communicate with other members of the pod and with other species too.

They have their unique vocal pitch to communicate, which is known as the signature whistle. It helps other dolphins to identify who is speaking and also really helpful when they got separated from their pod. Fascinatingly, dolphins copy its mother’s or a friend’s signature whistle to elicit acknowledgement from a pod member or to signal that they are available for social interactions, or to join a pod.

However, the most fantastic factor is dolphins use body language to communicate. Tail and flipper slapping on the water is a warning signal to inform the other members on nearby danger. In addition, dolphins use it to say about their desires to others, such as their need food or to play. The message depends on the hardness and repetition of the slapping. Other than that, during their mating period, they hardly bump with the head as an aggressive signal to other male dolphins. Oppositely, they gently bump and touch each other as an affection signal

The funniest factor is they also do show off as humans. They leap out of water in incredible sequence to show their youthfulness while at the same time watching out for predators. Moreover, leaping out of the water helps conserve energy because it takes less effort to swim through the air than push through the water.

Author
kaumadie satheeka
Undergratuate : BSc Pharmacy(Hons)
Faculty of Science
University of Colombo
Linkdin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaumadie-satheeka-5b236b1b3/

References:

1. https://discoverycove.com/orlando/blog/how-do-dolphins-communicate/#:~:text=Dolphins%20also%20communicate%20through%20a,dolphins%20can%20decipher%20who’s%20speaking.
2. https://uk.whales.org/whales-dolphins/how-do-dolphins-communicate/

Image sources

1. http://wallpaperweb.org/wallpaper/animals/bottlenose-dolphins-caribbean-sea-honduras_46208.htm
2. https://www.thoughtco.com/learning-about-dolphins-1834133