Dear colleagues,
We are pleased to announce our new publication:
Kaplan, M.B., Mooney, T.A., Sayigh, L.S., and Baird, R.W. 2014. Repeated
call types in Hawaiian melon-headed whales (/Peponocephala electra/). J.
Acoust. Soc. Am. 136(3): 1394-1401.
Abstract:
Melon-headed whales are pantropical odontocetes that are often found
near oceanic islands. While considered sound-sensitive, their
bioacoustic characteristics are relatively poorly studied. The goal of
this study was to characterize the vocal repertoire of melon-headed
whales to determine whether they produce repeated calls that could
assist in recognition of conspecifics. The first tag-based acoustic
recordings of three melon-headed whales were analyzed. Tag records were
visually and aurally inspected and all calls were individually
extracted. Non-overlapping calls with sufficient signal-to-noise were
then parameterized and visually grouped into categories of repeated call
types. Thirty-six call categories emerged. Categories differed
significantly in duration, peak and centroid frequency, and -3 dB
bandwidth. Calls of a given type were more likely to follow each other
than expected. These data suggest that repeated calls may function in
individual, subgroup, or group recognition. Repeated call production
could also serve to enhance signal detection in large groups with many
individuals producing simultaneous calls. Results suggest that caution
should be used in developing automatic classification algorithms for
this species based on small sample sizes, as they may be dominated by
repeated calls from a few individuals, and thus not representative of
species- or population-specific acoustic parameters.
You can access the paper here:
http://scitation.aip.org/content/asa/journal/jasa/136/3/10.1121/1.4892759 or
email me for a copy.
Best,
Max
--
Maxwell Kaplan
Biology Department
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
266 Woods Hole Rd, MS50, Woods Hole MA, 02543
office: + 1 508 289 3352
email: [email protected] web: maxwellkaplan.com
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