One Head to Another

News has come from France that some captive-born dolphins there have been recorded “talking in their sleep” — and talking in Whale, no less, not Dolphinese.
The scientists involved say this would be the first time that dolphins have been recorded mimicking sounds a significant period of time after hearing them.
But there’s also the intriguing possibility that these sounds — virtually identical to sounds made by the humpback whale — may, if the dolphins are really asleep and not just resting, be direct expression of something the dolphins are dreaming.
Another possibility, say the scientists, is that dolphins are going over their dolphinarium show routine in their heads in something like the way an eager student might fall asleep going over tough homework problems.
And as if to entice the scientists’ curiosity, just as these reports were emerging from France, reports and pictures surfaced from the waters around Hawaii, on the other side of the globe, that show the same kind of whale — humpbacks — playing a unique, even sensual, lift-and-slide game with the same kind of dolphin — the bottlenose.
Sleep-talking in humans is known to correspond to the contents of dreams.
And dreams, according to psychologist Sigmund Freud, are “the royal road to the unconscious.” Are the recordings of these captive dolphins in France, who during their rest/sleep cycles after midnight are imitating near-perfect humpback whale calls, allowing scientists to eavesdrop on moments of dolphin dream?
And if so, are they thus giving us a glimpse into the unconscious mental workings of the glistening bottlenose dolphin?
continues…