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Many animals use sounds to convey information. [Sound of wolf howl] Humans use particular vocal labels for objects and for people. We call these words, and names.
許多動物用聲音來傳遞信息。比如狼嚎。人類用特殊的聲音標簽指稱物體和同類。我們把這些聲音標簽叫做單詞和名字。
A few creatures, such as parrots and dolphins, can learn specific vocal labels. And wild dolphins are known to have particular, individual signature whistles. Scientists at Scotland’s St. Andrews University wanted to know: can these whistles be used as labels?
一些生物，比如說鸚鵡和海豚，能學習特殊的聲音標簽。野生海豚有特殊的個人專屬口哨。蘇格蘭圣安德魯斯大學的科學家想弄清楚這些口哨能夠成為標簽。
The researchers analyzed sounds from dolphins off Scotland’s east coast, and extracted these signature whistles. [Dolphin whistle sound] Then they altered the sounds so the calls wouldn’t sound exactly like the originating dolphin. [Altered dolphin whistle]
They played those sounds back to the dolphins, along with whistles from dolphins familiar to the animals and whistles from strangers.
研究人員分析了蘇格蘭東海岸海豚的聲音，并且截取了專屬口哨。然后他們改變了聲音，讓叫聲聽起來跟原始的聲音不一樣。他們把這些聲音重新放給海豚們聽，包括原始聲音和改變了的聲音。
When the dolphins heard their own signature whistle [Altered dolphin whistle] they routinely responded with that same sound. [Dolphin whistle sound] That reaction only happened twice when they heard sounds from their pals and not at all when they heard the alien dolphin. The research is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
海豚聽到它們的專屬口哨的時候報以同樣的回音。這種反應只在它們聽到從它們同伴那里發出的聲音時才發生了兩次，而對陌生海豚的聲音則沒有回應。研究發表在美國國家科學院院刊上。
The researchers think dolphin signature whistles serve as self-identification, and maybe even as a label for addressing each other—just like a name.
研究人員認為海豚專屬口哨是一個個人身份認證，甚至可能跟名字一樣用來互相聯系。
—Cynthia Graber
