By: Harvey Shen

Mother dolphins use high-pitched baby talk to communicate with their young.

When talking to her calves, the mother dolphin’s pitch is higher, and the pitch range is greater than usual.

“That was true for every one of the moms in the study, all 19 of them,” said Peter Tyack, a co-author at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Scientists think baby talk might help offspring learn to say novel sounds. Research in the 1980s says that human babies pay more attention to sounds with a greater pitch range.

Researchers don’t know if baby talk helps dolphins young learn to “talk” like humans.

“Another possible reason for using specific pitches is to catch the kids’ attention.”

Mother dolphins have a weird and different way of talking to their young.