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与人类一样 海豚能通过声音相互称呼“名字”
作者:王忠刚 阅读次数:4330
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摘要：
美国科学家5月8日表示，他们发现宽吻海豚能够通过口哨般的声音相互称呼“名字”，这使得它们成为目前已知的、除人类之外惟一一种能够识别此种身份信息的动物。
A high-pitched "wee-o-wee-o-wee-o-wee" whistle might not sound like much to you, but it‘s exactly how a dolphin might introduce itself.
美国科学家5月8日表示，他们发现宽吻海豚能够通过口哨般的声音相互称呼“名字”，这使得它们成为目前已知的、除人类之外惟一一种能够识别此种身份信息的动物。
据路透社5月8日报道，科学家一直认为，海豚发出的口哨般的声音中包含着一些重复的信息，据信这些就是它们的“名字”。一项最新的研究显示，即使在一些声音信号被从它们的叫声中移走，海豚仍然能够识别出自己及同伴的“名字”。
举例来说，如果是海豚妈妈在呼喊小海豚，那么人们认为这只小海豚能够从妈妈的喊叫声中识别出自己的“名字”。但是，这项最新研究发现，大部分海豚即使在发出的声音没有音调变化或者其他声音信号时，也能对彼此的“名字”——各自与众不同的叫声，进行识别。不只这些，研究人员还发现，两只海豚在一起时还可能会提到第三只海豚的“名字”。
研究报告的撰写人之一、北卡罗来纳威明顿大学的萨伊格在一个电话采访中表示，“据信海豚能够发出各自不同、各具特色的声音，这就像它们的‘名字’一样”。而研究人员想知道，海豚发出的声音中究竟包含了什么信息，能让它们识别出彼此的“名字”。
此前，科学家已经得知，海豚能对彼此的声音做出反应，但他们还想知道，海豚发出的这种声音中是否包含能让其身份变得更加清晰、更好辨认的某种因素，亦或它们的“名字”本身就足够用来识别了。
为了找到答案，科学家们研究了生活在美国佛罗里达州萨拉索塔海湾的一些海豚。科学家通过一个水下扬声器将已经去掉音调等声音特色的、经过合成处理的海豚叫声播放给研究对象听。研究发现，如果某只海豚听到一个类似自己亲属“名字”的叫声后，会时不时地转向扬声器，在14例试验中，有9例产生如此现象。
对此，Sayigh表示：“这是个非常有趣的发现，它激励着我们进行更加深入的研究。海豚把鸣叫声当成了指示信号——这就是它们的语言。海豚看起来在利用这些各自专有的信号来识别其他同类。”
报道说，这项研究的具体内容发表在美国新一期的《国家科学院学报》上。
A high-pitched "wee-o-wee-o-wee-o-wee" whistle might not sound like much to you, but it‘s exactly how a dolphin might introduce itself.
Because sight is limited in the ocean, dolphins create individual "name" calls to communicate their whereabouts to friends and families.
But it‘s not as simple as just recognizing a voice, as with most animals. A new study reveals that the calls contain frequency changes that dolphins recognize.
Humans are one of the few animals that use sound modulation instead of simple voice differences to identify individuals. For example, a person can recognize the name "John" whether it‘s being said by Gilbert Gottfried or James Earl Jones.
Scientists have long known that dolphins identify themselves with names, but the belief was that, like some monkeys, the animal‘s voice was the key ingredient of the call.
A team of researchers led by Vincent Janik of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland temporarily captured seven male and seven female bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay in Florida. Janik and his crew recorded the name calls of each dolphin, and digitally removed the voice features of each call.
They then played the computerized calls and digital versions of other random calls through underwater speakers where the dolphins were held. In nine of 14 cases, the dolphin would turn more often toward the speaker—an established technique for gauging a dolphin‘s interest—if it heard a whistle resembling the name of a close relative.
The study is detailed in this week‘s early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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