A listening guide to whistles, clicks, and burst pulses
Start with the sounds. Then ask what the recording can actually tell you.
This guide points to recordings published by the Wild Dolphin Project. Audio opens on their website, alongside the researchers' descriptions. Dolphin Singularity does not currently host a collection of field recordings.
Listen at the Wild Dolphin Project →
Whistles are tonal signals used in social communication, including contact between mothers and calves. Listen for the pitch rising or falling rather than a sequence of separate clicks.
A useful listening exercise: describe the contour before trying to give it a meaning. Is it smooth, repeated, or interrupted? Those observations are more defensible than assigning an English sentence to a sound.
Dolphins use clicks to explore their surroundings. Much of the acoustic information is ultrasonic, above the range of human hearing.
Check how a recording was prepared. A clip made audible for people may have been slowed down or otherwise transformed. What comes through your speakers is a listening representation, not necessarily what a dolphin hears underwater.
Burst pulses contain closely spaced clicks and occur in social interactions. They can sound like a buzz or squawk to a human listener.
Context matters. A label attached to one observed interaction should not be treated as a dictionary definition that applies to every similar sound. Look for the accompanying behavior and the researchers' explanation.
For each example, note the species, the recording context, and whether the playback has been altered. Separate what you can hear from what the source establishes. If the source does not identify the individual or explain a behavior, leave that question open.
A spectrogram can help you inspect a sound's frequency pattern over time. It cannot, on its own, establish the animal's intention. Keep that distinction in mind when comparing an acoustic display with a written caption.
Source: Wild Dolphin Project: Dolphin Communication. For papers and context, visit the research archive.