Dolphin Communication

Dolphins are one of the oceans favourite inhabitants when it comes to us humans. It has been known for a long time that dolphins have a communication system with their high pitched clicks and squeaks. Dolphins whistles were 'found' by us in the 1960's. It is known that each individual dolphin has it's own signature whistle that differentiates it from any other dolphins. This gives each dolphin it's own identity.

New research has now found that dolphins actually greet and introduce themselves to other pods that they encounter through a sequence of melodies called 'signature whistles'. In the whistle they not only greet, but introduce themselves, show a willingness to be friends and express that they mean no harm.

The study was led by Vincent Janik and Nicola Quick, experts in animal communication at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Arrays of underwater microphones were set up and the team followed a pod of bottlenose dolphins in St Andrews Bay. They studied how the pod interacted with other dolphins via their 'chatting'.

It appears that when one pod wants to interact with another, one member will initiate communication and one from the other group will respond. This usually preceded the dolphins joining up and swimming around together. Dolphins are known to mimic other dolphins' whistles, so when they use their own signature call, they are introducing themselves to the newly met group, according to the study.
They also do not communicate with any group either. When they don't want to socialize with a group, they simply swim on by without making an sounds. However, around 90% of encounters,result in contact. This would insinuate, that like humans, dolphins choose who to associate with and they do not go indiscriminately into interactions.

So far they have been unable to establish who would do the introducing because unlike many grouped animals, dolphins seem not to have a leader of the pod. Their structure is more fluid. (no pun intended).

We are still a long way off to understanding the complex social structures in sea mammals and how they think, fully communicate or help each other.
If dolphins communicate this way, then we can assume that all sea mammals do the same thing, as they are all known to have advanced intelligence. Surely, with this in mind, we should show them more respect and protect them further than we currently are. The more we learn from animals, the more we are discovering that they have surprising mental capacity and the less we should take them for granted. Humans must acknowledge that we share this planet with other creatures and therefore, it is not ours to do with as we wish, at the expense of the planet, it's beings and even ourselves.
We could even learn a thing or two about behaviour from other species.