New Study: Dolphins talk in their sleep, but do they speak ‘whale’
The ABC headline reads “Dolphins Reported Talking Whale in Their Sleep” as scientists in France report that captive-born dolphins have been recorded “talking in their sleep.” Joking about the Pixar film, Finding Nemo, they ask if they are speaking “whale”
Here’s a snippet:
…also the intriguing possibility that these sounds — virtually identical to sounds made by the humpback whale — may, if the dolphins are really asleep and not just resting, be direct expression of something the dolphins are dreaming.
Another possibility, say the scientists, is that dolphins are going over their dolphinarium show routine in their heads in something like the way an eager student might fall asleep going over tough homework problems.
And as if to entice the scientists’ curiosity, just as these reports were emerging from France, reports and pictures surfaced from the waters around Hawaii, on the other side of the globe, that show the same kind of whale — humpbacks — playing a unique, even sensual, lift-and-slide game with the same kind of dolphin — the bottlenose.
Sleep-talking in humans is known to correspond to the contents of dreams and dreams, according to psychologist Sigmund Freud, are “the royal road to the unconscious.”
ABC has a bit more HERE
photo Laura Jones
