Communication with animals could be a step closer thanks to an award-winning discovery.
A team of US researchers have found first evidence of a possible dolphin language which uses shared, context-specific meanings.
Their work has earned them an inaugural USD$100,000 prize from the Coller Dolittle Challenge for Interspecies Two-Way Communication.
The team has been studying a resident bottlenose dolphin community in Sarasota, Florida.
The study focused on non-signature whistles – which comprise approximately 50% of whistles produced by Sarasota dolphins.
A team of US researchers have found first evidence of a possible dolphin language which uses shared, context-specific meanings.
Their work has earned them an inaugural USD$100,000 prize from the Coller Dolittle Challenge for Interspecies Two-Way Communication.
The team has been studying a resident bottlenose dolphin community in Sarasota, Florida. The study focused on non-signature whistles – which comprise approximately 50% of whistles produced by Sarasota dolphins.
Non-signature whistles differ from more widely-studied signature whistles – which are name-like sounds.
The winning study identified distinct non-signature whistle types used by multiple dolphins for communication.
Using playback experiments performed under natural conditions in the wild, the team found that one non-signature whistle suggested an alarm function. A second non-signature whistle compares to a query function, in response to an unexpected or unfamiliar situation.
The dolphins were recorded via non-invasive hydrophones placed on their bodies, along with digital acoustic tags.
The winning research team is led by Laela Sayigh from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and includes Peter Tyack, also from Woods Hole, Vincent Janik from the University of St. Andrews, Frants Jensen from Aarhus University, and Katie McHugh and Randall Wells from Brookfield Zoo Chicago’s Sarasota Dolphin Research Program.
Their prize was presented during a virtual event with four shortlisted teams of researchers from the USA, Germany, France and Israel showcasing remarkable discoveries in communication with monkeys, nightingales and cuttlefish. All four finalists used cutting-edge technology and breath-taking ingenuity to decipher, interface and mimic non-human organism communication.
Laela said: “Bottlenose dolphins have long-fascinated animal communication researchers. Without the over five-decade-long study by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, we would not have such an extensive library of vocalisations for individual dolphins.
“With this, we can study non-signature whistles, which have received very little research attention to date. Our work shows that these whistles could potentially function like words, shared by multiple dolphins.”
The award organisers are The Jeremy Coller Foundation and Tel Aviv University.
Jeremy Coller said: “Humans share this planet with millions of other species, but for far too long we’ve only talked amongst ourselves. The Coller Dolittle Challenge aims to change that, so I’m really excited by the fascinating work Laela and her team have done on dolphin communication.
“They are worthy winners and I can’t wait to see how they use AI to further interpret this vast set of data.”
Professor Yossi Yovel, Tel Aviv University and Chair of the Coller Dolittle Challenge, said: “All the shortlisted entries truly raised the bar. The winner of this year’s prize stood out not only for its scientific rigour, but for the creative field experiments it has performed.”
Jonathan Birch, Professor of Philosophy, London School of Economics & Politics (LSE) and a member of the scientific panel of judges, added: “The main thing stopping us cracking the code of animal communication is a lack of data. Think of the 1 trillion words needed to train a large language model like chatGPT. We don’t have anything like this for other animals.
“That’s why we need programs like the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, which has built up an extraordinary library of dolphin whistles over 40 years. The cumulative result of all that work is that Laela Sayigh and her team can now use deep learning to analyse the whistles and perhaps, one day, crack the code.”
$10 million grand prize on offer
Through the challenge, a prize of USD$100,000 will be awarded every year until a team deciphers the secret to interspecies communication. For the successful team that ultimately cracks the code of Interspecies Two -Way Communication, a Grand Prize of either a USD$10million equity investment or a USD$500,000 cash prize will be awarded.
The Grand Prize will be awarded when the animal communicates independently without recognising that it is communicating with humans. The challenge is operated on an open access basis meaning that the data is available to the scientific community for advancement of this field of study.
Submissions for the 2026 prize are now open. As the Challenge progresses, the $100,000 prize will be awarded to the most promising research team each year to support their work in developing scientifically rigorous models and algorithms for coherent communication with non-human animals.
The research must adhere to the following criteria:
- Uses a non-invasive approach to communicate with or decipher an animal’s communication.
- Demonstrates communication in more than one context (e.g., alarm, mating, foraging) using the animal’s endogenous communication signals.
- Demonstrates a measurable response of the animal to the signals broadcasted to it.
Full details and guidelines for submission can be found here on the website.
