Animal Sounds

Many animals use sounds to [convey:survey] information. Humans use vocal labels for objects and for people. We call these words, and names. A few creatures, such as dolphins and parrots, can learn [specific:particular] vocal labels. And wild [dolphins:animals] are known to have particular, [individual:personal] signature whistles. Scientists at Scotland's St. Andrews University wanted to know: can these [whistles:sounds] be used as labels? The researchers analyzed [sounds:voices] from dolphins off Scotland's east coast, and extracted these signature whistles. Then they altered the sounds so the calls wouldn't sound exactly like the [originating:dominating] dolphin. They played those sounds back to the dolphins, along with whistles from dolphins familiar to the animals and whistles from strangers.