Name: 【TED】Denise Herzing: Could we speak the language of dolphins? (Could we speak the language of dolphins? | Denise Herzing)
Uploaded: 2013-06-30T13:53:55.000Z
Duration: 14 min 39 s
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Well, now we're going to the Bahamas to meet

a remarkable group of dolphins that I've been working with

Now I'm interested in dolphins because of their large brains

and what they might be doing with all that brainpower

And we know they use some of that brainpower

but what do we really know about dolphin intelligence?

which is a physical measure of intelligence,

And they pass self-awareness tests in mirrors.

And in some parts of the world, they use tools,

where I could observe dolphins underwater

to try to crack the code of their communication system.

Now in most parts of the world, the water's pretty murky,

so it's very hard to observe animals underwater,

but I found a community of dolphins that live

in these beautiful, clear, shallow sandbanks of the Bahamas

And they spend their daytime resting and socializing

in the safety of the shallows, but at night,

they go off the edge and hunt in deep water.

Now, it's not a bad place to be a researcher, either.

So we go out for about five months every summer

in a 20-meter catamaran, and we live, sleep and work

My main tool is an underwater video with a hydrophone,

which is an underwater microphone, and this is so

And most of our work's pretty non-invasive.

We try to follow dolphin etiquette while we're in the water,

since we're actually observing them physically in the water.

Now, Atlantic spotted dolphins are a really nice species

They're born without spots, and they get spots with age,

and they go through pretty distinct developmental phases,

And by about the age of 15, they're fully spotted black and white.

but dolphins can actually live into their early 50s.

And like all the dolphins in our community,

we photographed Mugsy and tracked her little spots

Now, young dolphins learn a lot as they're growing up,

and they use their teenage years to practice social skills,

and at about the age of nine, the females

become sexually mature, so they can get pregnant,

and so we have to determine who the fathers are,

so we do paternity tests by collecting fecal material

and hear sounds 10 times as high as we do.

But they have other communication signals they use.

They have good vision, so they use body postures to communicate.

And sound can actually be felt in the water,

because the acoustic impedance of tissue and water's about the same.

So dolphins can buzz and tickle each other at a distance.

Now, we do know some things about how sounds are used

that's specific to an individual dolphin, and it's like a name. (Dolphin whistling noises)

and you'd find this whistle when mothers and calves

Another well studied sound are echolocation clicks.

This is the dolphin's sonar. (Dolphin echolocation noises)

And they use these clicks to hunt and feed.

But they can also tightly pack these clicks together

For example, males will stimulate a female

And you can really feel the sound. That was my point with that.

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【TED】Denise Herzing: Could we speak the language of dolphins? (Could we speak the language of dolphins? | Denise Herzing)

specific

sophisticated

basically

applause