Short first click intervals in echolocation trains of three species of deep diving odontocetes
Abstract
All odontocetes produce echolocation clicks as part of their vocal repertoire. In this paper we analysed inter-click-intervals in recordings from suction cup tags with a focus on the first inter-click interval of each click train. We refer to shorter first inter-click intervals as short first intervals (SFIs). We found that the context of SFI occurrence varies across three deep-diving species. In Blainville’s beaked whales, 87% of click trains that were preceded by a terminal buzz started with SFIs. In Cuvier’s beaked whales, only sub-adult animals produced notable amounts of SFIs. In contrast, sperm whales were much more likely to produce SFIs on the first click train of a dive. While the physiological and/or behavioural reasons for SFI click production are unknown, species differences in their production could provide a window into the evolution of odontocete echolocation.
Citation
Dunn , C , Tyack , P L , Miller , P & Rendell , L E 2017 , ' Short first click intervals in echolocation trains of three species of deep diving odontocetes ' , Journal of the Acoustical Society of America , vol. 141 , no. 2 , pp. 900-907 . https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4976084
Publication
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0001-4966Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2017, Acoustical Society of America. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at asa.scitation.org / https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4976084
Description
LR and PT were supported by the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS) pooling initiative and their support is gratefully acknowledged. MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions.Collections
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