The study said dolphins explored urine samples for a longer time if they came from known animals.
That dolphins have a strong sense of hearing is known to all from the way they communicate over several kilometres underwater. But a new study shows that the friendly mammals have a powerful sense of taste as well that allows them to identify family and friends even without seeing or hearing them.
Researchers at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, have found that dolphins can recognise one another by the taste of their urine! Yes, you read that right. And this is because dolphins in a group are exposed to each other’s urine and other excretions underwater, just like humans are to one another’s smell in a close environment.
The study, conducted by Professor Vincent Janik, director of Scottish Oceans Institute, and his colleagues Jason Bruck and Sam Walmsley, said dolphins explored urine samples for a longer time if they came from known animals.
“This shows that not only can they tell animals apart by taste but also that they recognise animals across their senses, hinting at a complex representation of familiar animals in a dolphin’s brain. While taste and smell are connected experiences for humans, dolphins have lost their sense of smell in their evolution, and therefore, could only use taste to solve the task set to them by the researchers,” explained Professor Janik.
“We still know very little about how the sense of taste works in dolphins. Other studies have shown that they’ve lost a lot of common tastes such as sour, sweet or bitter. But they have unusual sensory cells on their tongue that are probably involved in this detection of individual tastes of other animals,” Professor Janik added.
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The study was carried out at the dolphin facilities in Bermuda and Hawaii where they live in natural sea water in their social groups, swimming with tourists. As a next step, the researchers are trying to figure out whether dolphins can also extract information about other dolphins’ diets from the taste of urine.
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 "Image: Pixabay")
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