Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: A new study suggests that dolphins squeal like kids when they are happy.
Dolphins are generally considered as highly vocal animals. Previous studies have also revealed that they have names for each other and call for each other just like humans.
The lead author of the study, Sam Ridgway discovered that whenever he used to reward the animals for answering his questions during their training sessions, they used to squeal.
Initially, Ridgway thought that the squeals were food signals, where animals communicate the presence of food to nearby members of their species, but, his wife Jeanette then suggested that the squeals reminded her of delighted children, which made him realize that squeals could be genuine expressions of delight.
The study also revealed that the time delay between dolphins and whales receiving a reward and their squeals was the same as the delay between a pleasant experience and dopamine release.
(With Agency inputs)
