Unique Howls Are What Wolves Use As Names

notscientific writes "Each wolf has a unique howl, which scientists can now decipher through voice recognition (audio), allowing them to identify wolves individually. The scientists developed sound analysis code that can tell which wolf is howling with 100% accuracy. Previously, pitch was used to tell wolves apart, but these only achieved a relatively low accuracy rate. This sound analysis is important because it could well give researchers the first proper way to effectively monitor wolves in the wild. Interestingly, this research comes after the recent finding that dolphins have names for one another. In the case of wolves, their howls are essentially their names."

Comments

Re:Here I am! Here I am!

[Retron]

FWIW, wolves do emit different types of howl - a given wolf won't produce the same howl each time.

Although nobody can say for sure what the meaning is, wolves will make different types of howl if they're separated from their pack, if they've completed a kill, if they're about to "rally" with the pack and, interestingly, if a wolf dies.

For general howling, then yes, it's been known about for years that you can identify a given wolf by their howl. My old adopted wolf Kenai (who lived at the same wolf centre as the original research author used for their studies) had a very recognizable two-tone howl.

Re:What does this have to do with names?

[Immerman]

Right. Or maybe it's like a child singing his mother's lullaby to himself after she's gone. You can *say* anything you want, but you need a strong evidence to make a scientific claim.

A more solid case would be Wolf A using Wolf B's howl to get Wolf B's attention and nobody else's, like dolphins do with their identifying whistles. Dirt simple solid argument, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the technological development discussed in the article. Well, other than the fact that the ability to identify individual wolves from their howl will make it much easier to listen in on their "conversations" and discover things like name usage, *if* it exists.