{"id":44197,"date":"2024-11-29T14:36:49","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T13:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/819cc81f-7160-4544-aac2-91b4eb4ac2c9"},"modified":"2024-11-29T15:27:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T14:27:24","slug":"this-underwater-recorder-just-detected-a-lonely-chattering-sound-in-the-baltic-sea","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/this-underwater-recorder-just-detected-a-lonely-chattering-sound-in-the-baltic-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"This underwater recorder just detected a lonely chattering sound in the Baltic Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists say the noise is being made by a solitary animal \u2013 now they’re trying to figure out exactly what it is saying. <\/p>

By Beki Hooper\n <\/p>

Published: Friday, 29 November 2024 at 13:36 PM<\/p>

\n\n

Bottlenose dolphins are famously sociable creatures. They usually live in pods where they play, chat and form close friendships with one another. <\/strong><\/p>

So when people living around Denmark\u2019s Svendborgsund Channel fell in love with Delle, a male dolphin who had been living alone for years, scientists from the University of Southern Denmark took notice.<\/p>

Because dolphins<\/a> are chatty creatures, at least when they are in one another\u2019s company, the scientists wanted to find out whether Delle, as a solitary individual, makes any noise.<\/p>

The researchers recorded Delle for over two months, using underwater recording equipment. To their surprise, they picked up a whopping 10,000 sounds.<\/p>

Listen to Delle the dolphin’s solo sounds\/Filatova et al. <\/figcaption> <\/figure>

\u201cMost surprising was that he produced so many sounds while being alone,\u201d Dr Olga Filatova, lead author of the study<\/a>, tells BBC Wildlife<\/em>. \u201cThese sounds are traditionally considered communicative, meaning there should be at least two dolphins ‘talking’ to each other.\u201d<\/p>

When they first looked at their results, the scientists thought that perhaps Delle was chatting to a paddleboarder who spent a lot of time with him, but then they realised that Delle was also chit-chatting away to himself at night, when no humans were present.\u00a0<\/p>

Delle the dolphin riding waves in the Baltic Sea\/Steven Van Elk, Unsplash <\/figcaption> <\/figure>