A Dolphin Remembered a Name After Twenty Years

#dolphins #dolphinintelligence #thingsyoudidntknow
Every bottlenose dolphin invents a unique whistle in the first few months of life — a sound no other dolphin on Earth makes. Other dolphins learn it and use it to call that individual by name.

Marine biologists analyzed 250+ wild dolphins in Sarasota Bay and found they repeat each other's signature whistles when separated — only copying the whistles of their closest social partners. Mothers copy calves. Allied males copy each other. And when researchers played a former companion's whistle to a dolphin that hadn't heard it in 20 years, the dolphin responded instantly. Dolphins are the only animal besides humans known to invent names, use them to call friends, and remember them for decades.