Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) wore opaque suction cups over their eyes while stationing behind an acoustically opaque door. This put the dolphins in a known position and orientation. When the door opened, the dolphin clicked to detect targets. Trainers specified that Dolphin S emit a whistle if the target was a 7.5 cm water filled sphere, or a pulse burst if the target was a rock. S remained quiet if there was no target. Dolphin B whistled for the sphere. She remained quiet for rock and for no target. Thus, S had to choose between three different responses, whistle, pulse burst, or remain quiet. B had to choose between two different responses, whistle or remain quiet. S gave correct vocal responses averaging 114 ms after her last echolocation click (range 182 ms before and 219 ms after the last click). Average response for B was 21 ms before her last echolocation click (range 250 ms before and 95 ms after the last click in the train). More often than not, B began her whistle response before her echolocation train ended. The findings suggest separate neural pathways for generation of response vocalizations as opposed to echolocation clicks.
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January 2012
January 13 2012
Vocal reporting of echolocation targets: Dolphins often report before click trains end
S. H. Ridgway;
S. H. Ridgway
a)
National Marine Mammal Foundation, 2240 Shelter Island Drive, San Diego, California 92106
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W. R. Elsberry;
W. R. Elsberry
Fish and Wildlife Research Institute
, 100 8th Avenue South East, St. Petersburg, Florida 33701
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D. J. Blackwood;
D. J. Blackwood
Fish and Wildlife Research Institute
, 100 8th Avenue South East, St. Petersburg, Florida 33701
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T. Kamolnick;
T. Kamolnick
Animal Training Consultants, 4886 Orchard Avenue, No. D, San Diego, California 92107
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M. Todd;
M. Todd
Animal Training Consultants, 4886 Orchard Avenue, No. D, San Diego, California 92107
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D. A. Carder;
D. A. Carder
U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program, SSC Pacific, San Diego, Code 71510, 535 Hull Street, San Diego, California 92152
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Monica Chaplin;
Monica Chaplin
Disney’s Animal Kingdom, 1200 North Savannah Circle East Bay Lake, Florida 32830
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T. W. Cranford
T. W. Cranford
Department of Biology,
San Diego State University
, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, California 92182
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a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: sridgway@ucsd.edu
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 131, 593–598 (2012)
Article history
Received:
August 23 2011
Accepted:
October 25 2011
Citation
S. H. Ridgway, W. R. Elsberry, D. J. Blackwood, T. Kamolnick, M. Todd, D. A. Carder, Monica Chaplin, T. W. Cranford; Vocal reporting of echolocation targets: Dolphins often report before click trains end. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1 January 2012; 131 (1): 593–598. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.3664074
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