At Gulf World, hunting for a dolphin’s ‘signature’
PANAMA CITY BEACH — Before the show, there was work to be done.
As an excited audience of elementary school students filed in to the seats at Gulf World Marine Park on Wednesday to watch a performance of rarely seen rough-toothed dolphins, a team of researchers was wrapping up a scientific quest to determine if the marine mammals have their own names — specifically, unique signature whistles by which they identify themselves to others.
As the dark-skinned dolphins cavorted in a smaller pool separated by a gate from the main facility, comparative psychologist Megan Broadway donned a headset and listened to their chirps and whistles captured by a hydrophone lowered into the water and recorded on a digital recording device.
“We’re trying to determine if this particular species used signature whistles,” Broadway said, as research associates Blair McGuffie and Lindsey Johnson monitored the dolphins milling around in the smaller pool. “Such signature whistles have been found in bottlenose dolphins that are unique for each one. It does broadcast their identity because it is unique for each one.”
Most dolphin signature impulses are very brief, spanning only a fraction of a second.
The lack of confirmed evidence that rough-toothed dolphins utilize this communication skill like other dolphin species stems in great part from the fact that so few of them are living in shore-based habitats, said Lee Ann Leonard, marketing director for Gulf World. Most living in deep water offshore far from researchers’ reach. The six rough-toothed dolphins at Gulf World were all stranding victims and constitute the only ones in North America available for research.
For their research, Broadway had Gulf World trainers briefly separate each dolphin in a smaller pool that is still connected in water with the holding area for the remainder of the group. “That is when it is most likely they will use their signal to communicate with the group,” she said.
Had the team reached success in its acoustic search for signature whistles? “We’ve found the whistle for one of the dolphins,” Broadway said with a smile. “It takes quite a while to do that.”
Broadway, a visiting professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, organized her nonprofit research organization, the Coalition for the Advancement of Scientific Research, in 2018. The plan is to publish the findings from their visit to Gulf World in a peer-reviewed report once the acoustic recordings have been thoroughly analyzed.
After several hours under study by the researchers, a team of Gulf World trainers came out and led the dolphins through a dazzling series of trained behaviors before the enchanted students. “They’re very social animals,” said lead trainer Kelsey Fisher.
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