Bottlenose dolphin mothers modify signature whistles in the presence of their own calves.

ABSTRACT: Human caregivers interacting with children typically modify their speech in ways that promote attention, bonding, and language acquisition. Although this "motherese," or child-directed communication (CDC), occurs in a variety of human cultures, evidence among nonhuman species is very rare. We looked for its occurrence in a nonhuman mammalian species with long-term mother-offspring bonds that is capable of vocal production learning, the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). Dolphin signature whistles provide a unique opportunity to test for CDC in nonhuman animals, because we are able to quantify changes in the same vocalizations produced in the presence or absence of calves. We analyzed recordings made during brief catch-and-release events of wild bottlenose dolphins in waters ne

SUBMITTER: Sayigh LS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10318978 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature