Prey detection by bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus: an experimental test of the passive listening hypothesis

Gannon, Damon P.; Barros, Nélio B.; Nowacek, Douglas P.; Read, Andrew J.; Waples, Danielle M.; Wells, Randall S.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.06.020

Cited by 116 publications

(121 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…At present, it appears most likely that dolphins detect potential prey through listening and then echolocate to get more information about them (Gannon et al, 2005). In one playback study to wild dolphins in Sarasota Bay, dolphins oriented and echolocated more after hearing sounds produced by fish versus sounds produced by snapping shrimp or other dolphins or before playback of any sound (Gannon et al, 2005).…”

Section: Natural Use Of Echolocation By Dolphinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, echolocation is an active sensory system, and some fish, e.g., American shad, can perceive high-frequency sound (130 kHz) including dolphin-like clicks (Mann, Lu, & Popper, 1997). Such fish may be more likely to evade an actively echolocating dolphin than a quietly swimming one (dos Santos & Almada, 2004;Gannon, Barros, Nowacek, Read, Waples, & Wells, 2005;Mann et al, 1997). Several studies of wild bottlenose dolphins suggest that they echolocate fairly infrequently (dos Santos & Almada, 2004;Gannon et al, 2005).…”

Section: Natural Use Of Echolocation By Dolphinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Echoic Object Recognition by the Bottlenose Dolphin

Harley¹,

DeLong²

2008

CCBR

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Object recognition, essential to many animals, often occurs underwater and in poor visibility conditions for bottlenose dolphins. Bottlenose dolphins can use sound through their ability to echolocate in order to recognize objects. Echoic object recognition is an unusual faculty that offers rich research opportunities and is the focus of this article. This review begins with a brief overview of the dolphin's echolocation system followed by considerations of echoic object discrimination, echoic object constancy, the use of echo trains versus individual echoes for object recognition, and extraction of object feature information from echoes. The authors present new data relating the acoustic analysis of objects with a dolphin's ability to recognize those objects. The results highlight the potential uses for simultaneous analysis of acoustic and behavioral data in order to understand better which features of echoes and echo trains allow the dolphin to recognize objects across vision and echolocation.

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Section: Natural Use Of Echolocation By Dolphinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Natural Use Of Echolocation By Dolphinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Echoic Object Recognition by the Bottlenose Dolphin

Harley¹,

DeLong²

2008

CCBR

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“…In certain conditions, some bats and dolphins have been shown to use passive listening rather than echolocation to find and capture prey (Fiedler, 1979;Wood and Evans, 1980;Gannon et al, 2005). In these experiments, however, it seems that the porpoises always relied on active biosonar rather than passive listening to locate and capture prey fish.…”

Section: Use Of Echolocation and Buzz Timingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, similar responses have not been observed in the squid Loligo pealeii or in unconditioned cod (squid: Wilson et al, 2007; cod: Schack et al, 2008). The fact that some fishes do show behavioral responses to ultrasonic clicks, combined with the observation that bottlenose dolphins regularly use passive listening rather than echolocation in prey detection (Gannon et al, 2005), suggest that predator-prey co-evolution similar to that observed in bats and insects may be occurring between toothed whales and their prey. …”

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confidence: 99%

Echolocation-based foraging by harbor porpoises and sperm whales, including effects of noise and acoustic propagation

DeRuiter¹

2008

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In this thesis, I provide quantitative descriptions of toothed whale echolocation and foraging behavior, including assessment of the effects of noise on foraging behavior and the potential influence of ocean acoustic propagation conditions on biosonar detection ranges and whale noise exposure. In addition to presenting some novel basic science findings, the case studies presented in this thesis have implications for future work and for management.In Chapter 2, I describe the application of a modified version of the Dtag to studies of harbor porpoise echolocation behavior. The study results indicate how porpoises vary the rate and level of their echolocation clicks during prey capture events; detail the differences in echolocation behavior between different animals and in response to differences in prey fish; and show that, unlike bats, porpoises continue their echolocation buzz after the moment of prey capture.Chapters 3-4 provide case studies that emphasize the importance of applying realistic models of ocean acoustic propagation in marine mammal studies. These chapters illustrate that, although using geometric spreading approximations to predict communication/target detection ranges or noise exposure levels is appropriate in some cases, it can result in large errors in other cases, particularly in situations where refraction in the water column or multi-path acoustic propagation are significant.Finally, in Chapter 5, I describe two methods for statistical analysis of whale behavior data, the rotation test and a semi-Markov chain model. I apply those methods to test for changes in sperm whale foraging behavior in response to airgun noise exposure. Test results indicate that, despite the low-level exposures experienced by the whales in the study, some (but not all) of them reduced their buzz production rates and altered other foraging behavior parameters in response to the airgun exposure. Sincere thanks also to the many other people who have helped with data collection and analysis over the course of my graduate work, and also to everyone who offered comments on drafts of this thesis. More detailed acknowledgments can be found at the end of each chapter, but here I would especially like to thank the following. Thesis Objectives and Chapter 1 OverviewThe goal of my thesis research has been to provide quantitative descriptions of toothed whale echolocation and foraging behavior (Chapters 2 and 5), including assessment of the effects of noise on foraging behavior (Chapter 5) and the potential influence of ocean acoustic propagation conditions on biosonar detection ranges (Chapter 3) and whale noise exposure (Chapter 4). I have focused on two study species, the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena, Chapters 2-3) and the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus, Chapters 4-5).The following sections present background information relevant to the research presented in the rest of the thesis, beginning with a review of previous research on the use of echolocation by foraging animals. This review is followed by b...

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“…Considering that the effective detection radius of T-PODs for bottlenose dolphins in Doubtful Sound is about 266 m (95% CI 222Á 317 m; Elliott et al 2011), the fiord complex is large (83.7 km 2 ; Stanton & Pickard 1981), and that the resident dolphin population is small (Currey et al 2007), it is not surprising that the daily rate of acoustic detection, at any one site, is low. Additionally, the emerging picture of how dolphins use echolocation in the wild suggests that they are often silent or use echolocation sparingly (Jones & Sayigh 2000;Gannon et al 2005;Nowacek 2005). Nevertheless, T-PODs proved effective at monitoring habitat use, broadly confirming the results of studies based on boat surveys (e.g.…”

Section: Foraging Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic monitoring of habitat use by bottlenose dolphins in Doubtful Sound, New Zealand

Elliott

Dawson

Henderson

2011

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research

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Passive acoustic methods are increasingly used to study cetacean habitat use and behaviour. The Timing Porpoise Detector (T-POD; www.chelonia.co.uk) is a self-contained acoustic data logger, which records echolocation by cetaceans. This study used nine T-PODs to document habitat use by bottlenose dolphins in Doubtful Sound, New Zealand, over a 12-month period, collecting data over 76,104 h (of a possible 78,840). T-POD records show that dolphin distribution varied seasonally, with inner fiord sites being used most often in summer and autumn, and outer fiord sites during winter and spring. This seasonal pattern was positively correlated with surface water temperature. Echolocation activity in general and buzzes, which are usually indicative of foraging, were both significantly more common during dawn and/or dusk, suggesting crepuscular foraging. T-POD data suggest that parts of the 'Dolphin Protection Zone', in which boat traffic is restricted, are used frequently while other parts are not, and provide a basis for refining this management tool.

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Prey detection by bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus: an experimental test of the passive listening hypothesis

Cited by 116 publications

References 43 publications

Echoic Object Recognition by the Bottlenose Dolphin

Echoic Object Recognition by the Bottlenose Dolphin

Echolocation-based foraging by harbor porpoises and sperm whales, including effects of noise and acoustic propagation

Acoustic monitoring of habitat use by bottlenose dolphins in Doubtful Sound, New Zealand

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