UK Edition
Beluga whale learns to 'talk' to pod of bottlenose dolphins
A beluga whale living in captivity with a pod of bottlenose dolphins has learned their language of whistles and clicks, scientists believe.
The four-year-old whale was moved to live with dolphins in the Koktebel dolphinarium in Crimea, in 2013 but initially struggled to communicate with her new tank mates.
However within just a few months, she had begun to copy their whistles in clicks.
Scientists think it could be the first example of an animal changing its vocalisations in an attempt to ‘talk’ to another species.
“Two months after the beluga’s introduction into a new facility, we found that it began to imitate whistles of the dolphins, whereas one type of its own calls seemed to disappear,” said researcher Elena Panaova, of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
"While the imitations of dolphin whistles were regularly detected among the beluga's vocalisations, we found only one case in which the dolphins produced short calls that resembled those of the beluga.
“This case may be an interesting example of interspecies communication.”
Dolphins have signature whistles, like names, which they use to call to each other. After just a few months the beluga had stopped using its own contact calls and switched to dolphin signatures.
The researchers have so far recorded more than 90 hours of audio, where the whale communicates like the dolphins.
Beluga whales are highly intelligent and have been known to imitate people, other animals and other sounds they hear.
However, researchers say the beluga’s dolphin-like sounds are more interesting because she has given speaking ‘beluga’ to fit in with the group.
Although the group were originally afraid of the whale, even the dolphin calf now swims beside her.
The research was published in the journal Animal Cognition.