The Wake

Dolphins will never be able to speak English, or any other human verbal language for that matter, but that doesn’t mean we won’t understand them anytime soon. Dolphins are incredibly intelligent animals that can communicate at least as well as any comatose college student early in the morning.

Dolphins use two different acoustic forms of communication, echolocation and whistling. Dolphins use echolocation—very short bursts of low-frequency clicks—to figure out their surroundings. They blast these clicks in rapid speed through flapping folds of skin in their blowholes. The clicks bounce off their environments back to the dolphins, which receive the echoes through their lower jaw. This sound is sent via nerves in the jaw through the middle and inner ear to the dolphin’s brain, which processes and interprets the signals. In this way, dolphins can figure out what’s around them even if they can’t see it. Dolphins can also use these clicks to signify certain emotions, such as squawking when angry or clicking rapidly when happy. Whistling is used when bottlenose dolphins want to identify each other. Scientists call this a signature whistle, because each bottlenose dolphin has an identifiable call, one they create by imitating their mother’s whistle.

Visual cues play a large role in dolphin communication as well. Dolphins can establish friendships with each other through rubbing and touching. Mothers often stay very close to their offspring in order to keep their attention. This sort of hugging communication cements relationships between dolphins. However, touching can also lead to biting, slapping or tackling between aggressive dolphins. If aggravated enough, dolphins will charge at each other full force, slamming into their opponents nose-first. When courting, dolphins will synchronize their movements to potential dates by swimming where they swim and flipping when they flip. Even the act of flipping out of the water and belly flopping back down can communicate several things to dolphins, whether it is anger, playfulness or a warning of predators in the area.

No proof has yet been discovered that dolphins have a specific language. This isn’t due to a lack of effort. Dolphins communicate in frequencies far beyond the human range of hearing. Scientists record these sounds, and then try to decipher what they mean, if anything at all. Dolphins seem to possess the brain power to comprehend language. They can be taught to understand specific hand signals that can form words and even sentences. These sentences are, of course, pretty basic in nature and are almost always commands, such as telling dolphins to flip in the air.

Anyone who has seen a dolphin before has most likely seen one at a zoo, performing tricks for crowds. Dolphins can be trained to execute specific actions they’d normally do in the wild. That’s because trainers teach dolphins to recognize signs or words for certain actions. The dolphin trainers at the Minnesota Zoo, for example, train dolphins to perform the flips and rolls the crowds come to see. Trainers use positive reinforcement to make sure their dolphins are rewarded for the right responses, using food, petting or even playfully squirting water at them. Through visual, audio and hand cues, these trainers can let dolphins know exactly what they want them to do at any time, with a specific reward for each action.

Dolphins may not be able to tell you what they think of you just yet, but there are several scientific projects underway which are trying to decipher dolphin language right now. By recording and analyzing dolphin clicks, scientists may be able to crack the dolphin’s language code in the future. Until then, dolphins can only tell you they don’t like you by ramming into you. It’s one of the few ways Flipper can tell you you’re being a jerk.