Listen to dolphins whistling to each other and you could be forgiven for thinking that they are having a conversation. Now we’re a bit nearer to understanding what they might be saying, thanks to a project that has distinguished nearly 200 different whistles dolphins make and linked some of them to specific behaviours.

Liz Hawkins of the Whale Research Centre at Southern Cross University in Lismore, New South Wales, Australia, eavesdropped on bottlenose dolphins living off the eastern coast of Australia for her three-year study.

“This communication is highly complex, and it is contextual, so in a sense, it could …