Sunday, May 27, 2007

Irish, Welsh dolphins have distinct dialects

Accents and dialects may be not unique to humans. Bottlenose dolphins from Wales and Ireland use different whistles to communicate, suggesting language differences that could be like dialects.

Why not, if the Irish dolphins have been isolated for a long time as researchers speculate. This is not the first suggestion of animal dialects. People have been listening to birds for a long time, and the idea of bird dialects seems to be well accepted.

So this American dolphin goes into a pub in coastal waters of southern Ireland and orders a mackeral...

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