Strange maneuvers by dolphins
Dolphins are old acquaintances of human beings, whether it is a aquarium, a TV show, a textbook or even a road, we have learned about and been exposed to this animal from all over the place since we were young. Their high IQ is also reflected in the stories of humans around the world who helped fall into the water and in zoo performances, although I don't like animal performances.
But even if human beings are still full of doubts about themselves, how dare they say that they fully understand a certain animal? Therefore, it is very common for new research to be born in particularly household animals such as dolphins. But today's new study of dolphins is indeed a bit unusual, unusually heavy in taste.
Scientists know that dolphins can make whistle-like sounds, and each dolphin has a different sound, and these sounds become their labels, the existence of personal identities and even names. Other dolphins imitate their sounds if they want to call their companions.
This is already powerful, but scientists have recently discovered that bottlenose dolphins can not only recognize their companions by sound, but they can even use another way: taste. Identify the source by tasting each other's urine. Dolphins can use two ways to identify and track other dolphins.
Identity issues
The researchers found that dolphins swim through the excretory holes of other dolphins and open their mouths, possibly to get social information "like dogs sniffing fire hydrants." Dolphins who encounter unfamiliar dolphins can taste their urine for more time and amount, even up to 3 times, which means that if they are known companions, they can indeed recognize them quickly.
Scientists conduct cross-modal studies to test whether dolphins recognize whether they are consistent through hearing and taste, whether they do not know how to link, in short, whether they know how to associate the taste of urine with the cries of their companions. They studied a small group of 5 members of dolphins, mixed their urine and call, and figured out how to release these signals to each dolphin to see which companion they would look for, and found that they would not move unless the urine and call came from a dolphin.
This shows that they do match the smell of urine with the corresponding dolphin call.
Scientists have previously used such experiments on a variety of fish and primates, testing whether the animals under test can identify an object or another animal, including sight, smell, hearing, touch, and more, by multiple cues received from different senses.
The researchers found that most animals' communication systems lacked recognizable, iconic sounds, such as the iconic calls of dolphins. Tasting urine to identify individuals is also rarely used by animals.
How?
While it is known that this heavy-tasting practice of dolphins does exist, scientists do not yet know the mechanisms behind this miraculous ability. But scientists know that taste recognition in dolphins is driven by lipid recognition, so dolphins' taste buds may also evolve lipid-sensitive functions.
The so-called lipids refer to the lipids that supply the energy needed by the body and provide the essential fatty acids needed by the body as components of cellular tissues.
If dolphins are indeed identified in this way, this could open up new directions in dolphin research and even inform research into human obesity.