Dolphins play the Batman theme song

It looks like humans aren’t the only mammals able to produce music: scientists have taught dolphins to combine rhythm and vocalizations to create a short, high-frequency version of the Batman theme song. The lead author of the study (Professor Heidi Harley) declared, “Humans are sensitive to rhythms embedded in sequences of sounds, but we typically consider this skill to be part of processing for language and music: cognitive domains that we consider to be uniquely human”. Apparently humans aren’t that unique – dolphins can produce rhythms too.



This is how the scientists trained them: first they parked a dolphin in front of an underwater sound projector that produced six different rhythms. Then they rewarded the dolphin for performing a specific action in response to a particular rhythm – for example, flipping its tail when Rhythm # 2 is played and tossing a ball when Rhythm # 3 comes on. The scientists played the rhythms at various tempos and pitches to ensure that the dolphin was recognizing the actual rhythm despite variations.



Next, they introduced an underwater button that the dolphin could push to produce different sounds. They trained the dolphins to create various patterns of sounds in response to specific objects….For example, when shown a Batman doll the dolphin would play the Batman theme song chorus: “da na na na na na na na BATmaaaaaaaaaaan!”

The dolphin also began spontaneously vocalizing whistles and chirps to harmonize with the rhythm it was playing with the button. By the end of the experiment, the scientists could show a dolphin an object and it would “sing” and play the correct rhythm-and-vocals combination that corresponded to the item.



Even though the dolphins proved amazing learning/mimicking capacity, they still don’t seem capable of producing “music” in the human sense of the word. There are hundreds of minute details involved in the construction of music: pitch, tempo, frequency, instruments, rhythm, vocals…..and intentionality. The dolphins aren’t purposely creating a melody – they’re simply mimicking a pattern of sounds that they are conditioned to perform. So is it true that humans are the only animals capable of producing music - or are we just unable to recognize music in the forms produced by other species? Can dolphins really sing? Is there a melody contained in their clicks and whistles that we simply can't distinguish? How would we categorize music produced by another species?



Some fun dolphin facts: they are one of the only species to have sex for fun and not just reproduction. They only have sex face to face – which is the most common sexual position for humans as well. Dolphin births require an experienced dolphin midwife to be present to aid the delivery. There exists a mysterious chamber in the dolphin brain whose purpose befuddles scientists. Experimentations suggest that it aids in achieving meditative states, contemplation, abstract thought, telepathic communication, and holographic visualization. Research into the skeletal structure of dolphins shows that they possess vestigial fingers and toes that evolved into fins and flippers….meaning that they once lived on land and then returned to their home, the sea. The famous explorer Jacques Cousteau wrote that the punishment for man’s original sin was gravity and humankind would achieve redemption only by rejoining the water – as dolphins did millennia ago.