Date of Award
Spring 5-2015
Degree Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Biological Sciences
First Advisor
Stan Kuczaj
Advisor Department
Psychology
Abstract
Vocalizations from dolphins were recorded using a hydrophone on several different occasions: from seven previously-housed dolphins prior to introduction of a new animal and from all eight dolphins together, both on the day of introduction and post-introduction. The vocalizations were categorized by visual inspection of spectrograms using Raven, then totaled and averaged. Total vocalizations appeared to peak during the physical introduction of a new individual to the previously-housed dolphins; however, the rates of vocalization per animal per hour showed that the post-introduction period had the most acoustic communications between individual dolphins. Whistles, chirps (a subcategory of whistles), and unmodulated burst pulses appear to make up the majority of dolphins’ communications during a captive introduction, as an identifier for members of the same tank and as a possible aggressive or agonistic display, respectively. In the future, measurements of dolphins’ vocalizations in combination with cortisol tests may serve to increase captive dolphins’ overall wellbeing by reducing the stress on introduced animals during the introduction process.
Copyright
Copyright for this thesis is owned by the author. It may be freely accessed by all users. However, any reuse or reproduction not covered by the exceptions of the Fair Use or Educational Use clauses of U.S. Copyright Law or without permission of the copyright holder may be a violation of federal law. Contact the administrator if you have additional questions.
Recommended Citation
Brady, Cheyenne M., "The Acoustics of Introduction: An Analysis of Vocalizations from the Captive Introduction of an Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus" (2015). Honors Theses. 325.
https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/325