• Question: How do dolphins click when they communicate?

    Asked by muckymillie to Charlotte, Jo, Kevin, Louise, Valeria on 18 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by ph09.
    • Photo: Valeria Senigaglia

      Valeria Senigaglia answered on 18 Jun 2012:

      Dolphins use whistles and other types of sounds to communicate while they use clicks to echolocate.
      Echolocation is a mechanism that dolphins use to navigate and search for things. Is their way to “see” when it’s all dark.
      Dolphins emit sounds (called clicks), sounds form waves that start from the source and propagate around the dolphins. You may think of a stone thrown in the water, it makes circular waves start start small near the stone and than becomes bigger and bigger.
      When these waves hit an object, like a fish, they bounce back to the dolphins that translate this message using an organ called melon that they have in their foreheads.
      Echolocation is extremely useful when you are at 2000 meters depth where it’s all dark and you are trying to find some juicy squid.

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