Dolphins have long impressed people with their sharp minds and humanlike traits, such as calling each other by name, goofing off and even understanding numbers.
Now a scientist has found that the mammals can recognize an old
friend’s whistle, even after they have been apart for 20 years — the
longest social memory ever recorded for a non-human.
In a study released Tuesday, dolphins largely ignored calls
from unfamiliar dolphins but responded when an old tank mate’s signature
whistle was played back to them. It didn’t matter how much time had
passed since the two had last seen each other or whether they had been
tank mates for only a few months: The dolphins appeared to remember a
familiar whistle.
“The main implications of such findings is that humans are not the
only mammals that retain memories of others for long periods,” said Eduardo Mercado III, a psychologist at the State University of New York at Buffalo, who was not involved in the research.
Before the new study, published online in the journal “Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B,”
much of what had been known about dolphin memory was anecdotal. This
recorded feat of long-term memory puts dolphins in the same field as
other highly intelligent creatures, including some monkeys and
elephants, both of which have been known to recognize unrelated members
of their species after time apart.
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