I feel like every person in childhood wished they could speak to animals. But for most people, that dream only remains a dream; however, some might have taken a step forward to fulfill their wish.

There are a lot of people who have been working on ways through which they can communicate with animals. Many individuals have also researched and tried different ways through which they can understand what animals are trying to say. Among these individuals, one of the most prominent names is Denise Herzing. Denise Herzing was the first to comprehend dolphin communication’s complex science.

In this article, you will see how Denise Herzing was able to build different tools and how she started communicating with the dolphins.

Dolphins, the magical creatures:

As we all know, dolphins are one of the most intelligent animals on the planet. According to the latest research, it is seen that dolphins’ brain-to-body ratio is similar to that of humans. They have very complex social lives and incredible ways of communicating with one another. Not only do they communicate through sound by also through their body language as well as with the sense of touch.

The dolphins use echolocation to find their other herd members and also for hunting. Furthermore, the most impressive and mind-blowing fact about dolphins is that each dolphin in the world has a powerful whistle. This whistle acts as a name for them and helps them identify one another.

The dolphins use a burst of pulses toward one another to show aggression. They also mirror body postures and positions while traveling in the herd. This is why when one dolphin pops out of the water, and all the others follow the first one.

Who is Denise Herzing?

Denise Herzing gained a lot of fame because of her work in animal-human communication. She was very intrigued by the dolphins and how they communicated with one another. Hence, she reached and made some fantastic tools through which humans can slightly understand the dolphins.

Denise Herzing is the research director and the founder of the Wild Dolphin Project. The main goal of this project is to understand dolphins’ social structure, communication, behaviors, and habits. They wanted to examine the ecosystem of the dolphins in the natural habitat and not in confined aquariums.

Denise has worked with dedication over the past three decades to understand the behaviors of dolphins completely. She spends each summer in the pods of Atlantic in the Bahamas. Her team collaborated with a brand called Georgia Tech to build a device. This wearable device allowed the researchers to know more about the dolphin language.

Herzing is also the author of the book Dolphin Diaries, released in 2011. Not only this, but she is also an assistant professor the Florida Atlantic University. She also does different TED talks, seminars, and lectures where she educates people about dolphin-human communication.

Denise Herzing and her curiosity about dolphin-human communication:

Denise Herzing was very curious when she observed that dolphins were trying to mimic human sounds. She says that the dolphins are also as curious about humans as we are about them. The dolphins gave a positive response whenever humans tried to communicate with them, and they tried their best that they can play with us.

This sparked an idea in Denise’s mind that it wouldn’t be amazing if she and her team could build a technology to help them understand dolphins more clearly.

The technology for communication with the dolphins:

To test the dolphin-human communication skills Denise and her team made a keyboard with four different symbols. This will also pair with acoustic sounds and also a toy. Through this, the dolphin learned to bring back the toys according to the keyboard’s sounds.

Besides this, Herzing and her team also made a software named “Chat.” This software was a breakthrough, and a lot of people were shocked at the level of creativity. Through this software, the dolphins will be able to send in their requests for the things they want from us. This means they can ask for food, pets, toys, and so much more from humans. However, this software is still a prototype. 

Through all the efforts made by Denise, we can say that dolphins and humans have an enormous scope that they can understand each other in the future. Properly training the dolphins and having adequate tools and knowledge will help us find the connection through which we can easily talk to dolphins and other animals worldwide.