Dolphins also use baby talk to bond with young

Amazing stuff! That is cute!

"... Also known as motherese, child-directed communication (CDC) features a higher pitch and wider pitch range, believed to boost bonding and language learning in children.
Researchers found that wild bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncates) near Sarasota Bay, Florida, changed their signature whistles – their individual "voice" – to a higher frequency with a greater range, essentially demonstrating CDC, when they were in the presence of their calves. ...
Scientists don’t know a lot about CDC in other species. Adult male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) adjust their songs when juveniles are nearby, while squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sp.) and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), alter their vocalization when communicating with younger members of their species. ..."

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

“Motherese” is a speech pattern that is nearly universal across cultures and languages in human caregivers interacting with children, but evidence among nonhuman species is sparse. Here, we report evidence for motherese in the bottlenose dolphin, a species that shows parallels to humans in their long-term mother–offspring bonds and lifelong vocal learning. Female bottlenose dolphins increase the maximum frequency and frequency range of the same vocalizations (signature whistles) when in the presence or absence of offspring, paralleling similar changes in human motherese. Our data provide an example of convergent evolution of motherese in a nonhuman mammal and support the hypothesis that motherese can facilitate vocal learning and bonding in nonhumans as well as humans.

Abstract

Human caregivers interacting with children typically modify their speech in ways that promote attention, bonding, and language acquisition. Although this “motherese,” or child-directed communication (CDC), occurs in a variety of human cultures, evidence among nonhuman species is very rare. We looked for its occurrence in a nonhuman mammalian species with long-term mother–offspring bonds that is capable of vocal production learning, the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). Dolphin signature whistles provide a unique opportunity to test for CDC in nonhuman animals, because we are able to quantify changes in the same vocalizations produced in the presence or absence of calves. We analyzed recordings made during brief catch-and-release events of wild bottlenose dolphins in waters near Sarasota Bay, Florida, United States, and found that females produced signature whistles with significantly higher maximum frequencies and wider frequency ranges when they were recorded with their own dependent calves vs. not with them. These differences align with the higher fundamental frequencies and wider pitch ranges seen in human CDC. Our results provide evidence in a nonhuman mammal for changes in the same vocalizations when produced in the presence vs. absence of offspring, and thus strongly support convergent evolution of motherese, or CDC, in bottlenose dolphins. CDC may function to enhance attention, bonding, and vocal learning in dolphin calves, as it does in human children. Our data add to the growing body of evidence that dolphins provide a powerful animal model for studying the evolution of vocal learning and language."

Dolphins also use baby talk to bond with young

Bottlenose Dolphins Communicate in “Motherese” with Their Offspring (primary news source)

Bottlenose dolphin mothers modify signature whistles in the presence of their own calves (no public access)