This is Scientific Americans 60 Second Science.

I'm Jason Goldman.

Got a minute?

She has this thing where she goes to a movie theater watching a horror movie and

there was a wolf howling in the background.

University of Cambridge zoologist Arrik Kirchenbaum talking about his collaborator Holly Root

Gutteridge, a biologist at Syracuse University.

She said to herself, well, that's wrong, you know, that's clearly a European wolf and not a North American wolf like it, like it should be in the scene.

Slight variations in the way we speak,

allow us to tell whether someone is from Boston.

Oh, it's gonna be a wicked hockey game.

I drove here from Revere.

Or New York.

Well, you drove here from Revere.

Who cares?

Just by listening to them.

The same turns out to be true for the animals known as canids,

which includes wolves, dogs, and coyotes.

They all howl to communicate,

whoa-woo-woo, but those howl to communicate, but those howls vary.

Canids can tell which howls belong to their known associates and which belong to strangers.

So Kirshamb and Root Gutteridge decided to categorize the howls of different canids around

...