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

Names dogs give themselves

[fullon604]

Reminds me of this far side cartoon -- http://bit.ly/12lglUc

Wolf howl identification technology excites expert

[auric_dude]

Wolf howl identification technology excites experts http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/23263266 and on a lighter note Wolves Munch Watermelons to Beat the Heat: Photos http://news.discovery.com/animals/endangered-species/wolves-munch-watermelons-photos-130723.htm via http://www.metafilter.com/130297/Wolf-Watermelon-Party

So... how do they call each other?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because imitating each others' howls would sound like a very confusing thing to do.

Re:So... how do they call each other?

[Joce640k]

Because imitating each others' howls would sound like a very confusing thing to do.

Um, they don't call each other, they just listen to know who else is in the area.

PS: This is a junk article that's just tagging along on the dolphin story (which is interesting/new). Pretty much all group animals can recognize others by sound (parents/babies need to find each other in crowds).

Re:So... how do they call each other?

[Oligonicella]

Oh, please. Calls are at the top of their communications methodologies. They have self-identifying calls for a reason and it's not over-vocalized introspection.

Your statement would be like saying that although you have a unique # here on ./ and it appears on all your self-identified posts, others really can't read it.

Re:So... how do they call each other?

[Immerman]

No, they said the wolves have unique calls - aka voices. I'd bet that each wolf is perfectly capable of recognizing the voices of those important to them, just like we can recognize the voice of a loved one even in a crowded bar where we can't understand their words.

It has has nothing whatsoever to do with names though - that's just sensationalism.

More a fingerprint then a name

[plankrwf]

A name is something OTHERS use to identify you. If I read the summary right (no need to read that article), they are not suggesting that OTHER wolves are imitating a howl to identify another wolf.
Said differently: the howl is like a fingerprint (although an audible one) in that it can be used to identify the owner of said howl.

Re:More a fingerprint then a name

[sg_oneill]

I think the implication is that they can recognize each other by the howl.

I guess something like "Hear that? Its Arooooogaaaaahgrumble! , and it sounds like he's found an old sock!"

Re:More a fingerprint then a name

[mephist01]

Exactly. Regarding the dolphins, Geoffrey Pullum (Prof. Linguistics, U of Edinburgh) covered this here:

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5453
" 'The researchers found that individuals only responded to their own calls, by sounding their whistle back.'

Now, think about that. If you call out "Geoff Pullum!" in a crowded street, and I'm there within earshot, I'm likely to turn round and look at you. But what I am not likely to do is yell "Geoff Pullum!" back at you."

Re:More a fingerprint then a name

[Anonymous Coward]

Hodor

Re:More a fingerprint then a name

[jkflying]

The idea of a name is that you can use it to refer to a third party even when that party isn't present, ie. imitating another's 'fingerprint' so that you can be sure you are both referring to the same person. The wolves don't do that, they are just capable of recognising certain howls as belonging to certain owners, much like recognising somebodies face.

Re:More a fingerprint then a name

[ArsenneLupin]

Or, rather, like voices. Like each human has a different voice (unless he chooses to disguise it). And the voice is different than the name..

Re:More a fingerprint then a name

[ArsenneLupin]

...., much like recognising somebodies face.

Or, more to the point, like recognizing somebody's voice...

Re:More a fingerprint then a name

[dkleinsc]

Hear that? Its Arooooogaaaaahgrumble!

Oh, must be Richard Nixon's head then!

Re:More a fingerprint then a name

[Oligonicella]

Odd then, how frequently we select names for ourselves that we wish others to use.

Re:SO! What's wolfie's name?

[MoreDruid]

Moon Moon!

Misleading headline and a broken link

[wonkey_monkey]

Unique Howls Are What Wolves Use As Names

First of all, strange wording - I'd have gone with "Wolves Use Unique Howls As Names."

More importantly, no-one - except for a commenter on one of the articles - is suggesting that wolves use these as names. You could get 50 people to stand on a hill and shout "I love monkeys!" and still get a computer to tell them apart, but that wouldn't be a name.

Even more bizarre is the headline on the linked article:

Wolves howl like humans, new voice recognition study shows

Er, what? No they don't. They howl like wolves.

The scientists developed sound analysis code

Might want to fix that link.

Here I am! Here I am!

[Gothmolly]

Is probably what they're saying most of the time. At the risk of sounding trite, I expect that the return howls are mostly just 'So glad you are!'.

They're not discussing Plato or the recipe for fondue, they're wolves. If there's any content in the howl it's going to be things like 'I'm hungry!' or 'Who wants some?' or 'Deer party at Blacktail's den!'

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.

Bad Science

[seyyah]

Dolphin story debunked (twice):
Dolphin naming?
Dolphins using personal names, again

I'm going to assume that the wolf story is as much nonsense.

Re:Bad Science

[Retron]

Here's something which I can't explain. Maybe a reader here can shed some light on it?

Back in 2006 we had three wolf pups at the wolf centre (I became a volunteer after adopting Kenai, mentioned above). They were hand-reared, so were used to people right from the start.

I decided to do a fun experiment, knowing it'd be the only chance I'd get. Nobody else was this daft!

* When they were three months of age, I ran away from them in their enclosure. They chased me, but when I zigzagged away from them they gave up.
* At four months old, I repeated the experiment. This time they followed me even after I zigzagged, before catching up with me (whereupon they licked me profusely).
* At six months old, I did it for the final time. This time the two female wolves ran away from me and vanished behind some trees. The male wolf came straight towards me, staring at me intently. When he reached me, he wrapped himself around my legs, causing me to wobble a bit. As I was working out how to extricate myself, there was an almighty "whomp" from behind as the two females jumped upon me. That knocked me over and I was licked half to death by the happy pups.

To this day, I don't know how they communicated their tactics to one another, although clearly they did somehow. Wild wolves do the same thing, of course, as you'll have seen on those nature programmes where they use the pincer movement to get a bison calf away from the herd. FWIW there was no noise from the wolves beforehand, just the rustling of grass as they executed their manoeuvre.

Re:Here I am! Here I am!

[Retron]

You won't hear a wolf bark very often (and it tends to be distinct "wuff"s rather than a long, continuous series of barks - Mosi at the UKWCT barks if a particular person comes into the centre) but certainly with howls you can that there are different scenarios. For example, the wolves at the UKWCT will do long chorus howls when the nearby church bells ring, but if you take one particular wolf out she'll howl a few times when she's out of sight of the other wolves - presumably to let them know she's still around. If the wolves are feeling playful, they'll sometimes "rally" (which is a real cacophony, you can hear one of my recordings on the wolf page on Wiki, which someone has labelled "rallying cry"). Before the rally properly starts they'll howl, but the pitch varies rather than being a pure note.

Fun fact: when I played one of the wolf howl recordings I'd made, the oscilloscope on WinAmp showed a perfect sine wave for a few seconds. I was impressed!

Not a name

[Culture20]

It's not a name unless a second wolf uses the howl to "talk" about the first wolf to another wolf (even the first wolf in case the second wolf wants a specific wolf to come to its location).

What does this have to do with names?

[Immerman]

Great, so they've learned to recognize individual wolf voices, what does that have to do with names? A name, like any noun, is an abstract representation of someone(thing) not present. Dolphins each have a distinct whistle that other dolphins use to attract their attention - which seems an awful lot like a name to me. In this case all they've done is figure out which wolf is "talking", and recognizing the voices of important individuals is something we know pretty much every vocal species does - parents and offspring almost always, and often mates and other family members as well.

Oh, and sorry for hijacking your comment.

Re:What does this have to do with names?

[blackraven14250]

I didn't RTFA, but I could see them proving it's a name fairly easily. For example, when a family has 2 dogs for a while, and one dies, the other dog is quite visibly affected by their death. If the next night, you hear the living dog using the howl that the now-dead dog normally used, you could quite easily say they're calling a name.

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.

Re:What does this have to do with names?

[Immerman]

Finish reading the paragraph. As I said that *would* be a name, if it happened - but so far as I know there's no evidence of such behavior among wolves. Certainly the article doesn't suggest anything like that.