Emily Chan
Back in 2022, a lone wild dolphin was seen conversing with porpoises, marking the first time that an animal was able to speak to a different species.
A team of researchers from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, reviewed audio recordings of the dolphin to study its behavior and communication style.
The female dolphin, which locals affectionately named Kylie, had been living among a pod of harbor porpoises in the Firth of Clyde for about 14 years.
The Firth of Clyde is a saltwater inlet located on the west coast of Scotland. It boasts the deepest coastal waters in the British Isles and is a thriving habitat for many marine creatures.
The people living in the area saw that Kylie engaged in frequent interactions with the porpoises. They wondered if Kylie had learned how to communicate with the porpoises after spending so much time with them. To find out, researchers studied recordings that were taken with a hydrophone in 2016 and 2017.
They compared the noises Kylie made when she was alone to those she made when with the porpoises.
Dolphins usually use whistling sounds to communicate with each other, while porpoises make high-pitched clicking noises.
When the researchers played back the recordings, they found that Kylie did not whistle at all. She seemed to identify as a porpoise, producing high-pitched clicks that closely resembled those made by porpoises. Even when Kylie was alone, she was heard using the clicking sounds.
Furthermore, the recordings revealed a rhythmic, back-and-forth communication between Kylie and the porpoises that was indicative of a conversation.
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