- When the walls start closing in, even dolphins begin to talk to themselves.
Whether you’re sick or all your friends happen to be out of town at the same time, sometimes we end up spending one too many days in our own company. That’s when you start laughing with your houseplants or having extended conversations with your dog.
Recently, however, we discovered that it’s not just people who start talking to themselves when cabin fever hits.
Some years back, a solitary dolphin settled around the coast of Denmark. That was weird since dolphins are generally very social creatures and no known dolphin pods live there.
Being nosy as they are, marine biologists dropped microphones in the sea to find out whether the dolphin might try to communicate with human divers or perhaps the porpoises inhabiting the area. It turns out that the dolphin talks a lot to no one in particular.
Despite being utterly alone, the dolphin is having full-on conversations covering the entire dolphin emotional spectrum. It laughs, cries, and experiences bouts of anger — all by its lonesome.
Researchers aren’t sure whether the dolphin’s vocalizations are spontaneous reactions or if it’s trying to entertain itself in its endless solitude. Either way, this is certainly the loneliest dolphin in the world.
The Lone Wanderer
The saga of the lonely dolphin began some five years ago. Locals living around the Svendborgsund Channel on the central Danish island of Funen noticed that a bottlenose dolphin had moved into the channel.
The arrival of the dolphin became relatively big news since as far as anybody knew, no dolphins lived in these waters. Local media and residents soon named the male dolphin visitor Delle.
Everyone probably thought Delle wouldn’t stick around for long, as dolphins are highly social and typically live in pods. Although adult males (like Delle) do spend some time alone, even they tend to stick together in pairs or groups of a few individuals.
So, imagine the surprise when Delle stayed in Svendborgsund year after year. He never got any company either and swam around all by himself.
This bizarre behavior piqued the curiosity of marine scientists. They knew dolphins are very chatty in their own “language” consisting of squeaks, clicks, and whistles, so they decided to lower microphones into the water to eavesdrop on Delle.
They figured that the dolphin might be trying to engage with the porpoises that live in the channel, or perhaps it was attempting to chat with human swimmers and divers.
And sure enough, Delle talks a lot. Only, he talks to himself.
Marine Motor Mouth
The biologists discovered that Delle does “speak” when porpoises or divers are around. However, he speaks just as much when he’s verified to be utterly alone.
Between December 2022 and February 2023, the researchers recorded nearly 11,000 vocalizations from Delle. They cover basically every type of sound dolphins are known to make.
Delle likely makes some noises, such as percussive clicks and low rumbles, when he’s hunting, as dolphins rely on a sonar system to find food. However, he also makes sounds that are verified to be part of dolphin social communication.
Additionally, in his own language, Delle was expressing pretty much all the feelings dolphins are known to have. Sometimes he made happy noises, other times he was obviously sad — and then there were the times when he made sounds associated with aggression.
That’s even though there was no one around for him to be mad at.
Bored and Lonely?
But why is Delle being so chatty when he’s utterly alone? Well, the biologists came up with a couple of explanations.
First, some of the sounds are likely spontaneous emotional outbursts. Essentially, they’re the equivalent of you laughing at something funny even when you’re alone, or swearing in anger at your coffee table when you stub your toe.
However, Delle talks way too much for all of it to consist of random reactions. To explain that, the researchers have another, much sadder, suggestion.
They reckon Delle must be lonely.
As mentioned, dolphins are social creatures by nature; even the more solitary males do crave companionship. But there’s no one in Svendborgsund for Delle to engage with, so he talks to himself to relieve his loneliness and boredom.
It’s unknown why Delle came to the channel all alone, and we don’t know why he doesn’t leave to find some company. He may be somehow hopelessly lost — or perhaps he’s just a hermit who’s his own best friend.
Unless we figure out how to speak dolphin, we can’t know.