Dolphins Chatter More When Solving Tricky Tasks

It's known dolphins use acoustic signals to maintain contact with one another and find food. While scientists can't say for certain that dolphins have what humans call a language, the findings suggest vocalizations may play a much larger role in efforts that require cooperation than previously thought, lead author Holli Eskelinen, an assistant director of research at Dolphins Plus in Florida, told The Huffington Post. "All we can say at this point is that we observed a significant increase in vocalizations during the two animals interacting condition," she said. Eskelinen told HuffPost many people are anxious to show parallels between animals and humans, but using the word "language" when describing the communication observed in dolphins is "very premature." In addition to offering several programs to swim with captive dolphins, experiences that start at $150 per person, Eskelinen said the facilities host some 20,000 students a year and are currently involved in more than 50 research projects related to acoustics, behavior and cognition.