Animal behaviour: Monk parakeets can recognise voices of friends

Can you tell your friends apart just by listening to their voices? Have you ever wondered if animals can too?

Well, research suggests monk parakeets have unique 'voices' that may help them identify their friends and their enemies too.

Scientists believe they have found evidence that the birds - which are a species of parrot - could all have an individual sound, which this is something they could use to tell each other apart, just like humans.

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Germany recorded 5,599 calls from 229 monk parakeets living wild over two years in Barcelona in Spain. Each of the birds had a coded band on their legs so researchers could tell them apart.

Monk parakeets aren't the only animals with unique voices.

Bottlenose dolphins can also produce unique signature whistles, that are their own 'voices'.

While all the whistles sound different, researchers from the University of Sassari in Italy believe the whistles can be affected by where the dolphins live and the size of their community.

Scientists studying hippos living in a nature reserve in Mozambique in Africa say that they too can recognise each other's voices - and can even pick them out when they hear them calling from far distances!

The team from Germany, looking into the parakeets, says its research suggests there could be even more animal species that have unique voices too!