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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."
Reminds me of this far side cartoon -- http://bit.ly/12lglUc
Because imitating each others' howls would sound like a very confusing thing to do.
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.
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.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
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.