plasticular inscriptor

I have to ask. Scientists are always remarking on how smart whales and dolphins are. If whales are so smart, why is it that scientists think that playing a recording of other whale songs will lure whales out of a bad situation? If I ever were to get myself into a big mess and decided to lock myself up in a room, playing a recording of Celine Dion is not going to make me come out. Not only are these scientists assuming that the whales will think “Hey, that sort of sounds like Larry out there, maybe I should go say hi”, but also they’re assuming that these supposedly smart animals can’t tell the difference between a recording and real life (at least they aren’t playing back the recordings off a wax cylinder).