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back to article Student lends an ear to Welsh-speaking dolphins

Dolphins living off the coast of Wales have their own distinct "dialect", a University of Wales student has discovered. As part of his master's thesis, Ronan Hickey analysed 1,882 whistles from dophins in Cardigan Bay and Ireland's Sannon Bay, Reuters reports. In the process, he found "32 different sound categories, of which …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hardly news

    This was reported by the BBC 8 days ago.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/6669469.stm

    I thought it was the Daily Star which recycled old news stories to pad out their content...?

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  2. Mike

    Hmmph

    No big deal, we've known since 1990 that killer whales have distinct "dialects".

    (Dayton, Leigh; "Killer Whales Communicate in Distinct 'Dialects,'" New Scientist, p. 35, March 10, 1990.)

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  3. Graham Dawson Silver badge

    Isolated Mamalian Group 'no different to neighbouring groups'.

    Researchers were shocked today to discover that an insular group of sea-mammals displayed absolutely no distinctive characteristics or behaviours.

    "Frankly I'm shocked," one researcher said, visibly shocked. "We expected to find differences and there were none."

    Others were more dismissive. "Of course, common sense would tell you that isolated groups of mammals would begin to display unique behaviour patterns but"

    cont. page 94

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Inevitable Comment

    The sounds distinct to the welsh dolphins were "Watch out! He's the one the sheep warned us about!"

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    dolphin chat

    knowing the Shannon area well, you will find that the sea faring mammels have 13 words for rain.

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  6. Michael Corkery

    TYPO: Sannon --> Shannon

    Graham Dawson - how are they insular exactly? And how do you know so much about regional groupings of dolphins?

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