Whale and porpoise voices : a phonograph record

Includes accompanying booklet and image of record jacketThe vocal sounds of cetaceans are a little known and even less understood feature of the complex adaptation of these animals, whose ancestors lived on the dry land, to an entirely aquatic existence. Even in the clearest surface waters, sight is limited to about a hundred feet or less in daytime, and visibility ranges are mostly negligibly short for fast-swimming animals, so that they are effectively partly or wholly blinded. Therefore sound and hearing have an especially important place in their lives. Sound is used not only in direct communication, but also to a large degree in navigation and hunting (echo-location). The excerpts presented here are samples of such sounds made by eighteen species, all obtained by eavesdropping in the open sea (except for the Inia selection, which was made in captivity). These recordings have not been speeded up or slowed down, and so are true in natural frequency and time; there has been no editing or filtering except as noted

Whales, dolphins, and porpoises of the western North Atlantic: a guide to their identification

This is an identification guide for cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises). It was designed to assist laypersons in identifying cetaceans encountered in the western North Atlantic Ocean and was intended for use by ongoing cetacean observer programs. This publication includes sections on identifying cetaceans at sea as well as stranded animals on shore. Species accounts are divided by body size and presence or lack of a dorsal fin. Appendices cover tags used on cetacean species; how to record and report cetacean observations at see and for stranded cetaceans; and a list of contacts for reporting cetacean strandings. (Document pdf contains 183 pages - file takes considerable time to open

Right whale, Eubalaena glacialis, sightings in Cape Cod waters

Sightings of right whales, Eubalaena glacialis, in Massachusetts waters have been recorded by workers at Woods Hole Oceanographic In stitution since 1955. These observations do not represent a census, because emphasis was placed on studying the whales' underwater sounds and other activities. The number of yearly sightings varied from 2 to 165. Observations were made from aircraft, boats, and occasionally from shore.Prepared for the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-79-C-0071; NR 083-004

Wikipedia as an encyclopaedia of life

In his 2003 essay E O Wilson outlined his vision for an “encyclopaedia of life” comprising “an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth”, each page containing “the scientific name of the species, a pictorial or genomic presentation of the primary type specimen on which its name is based, and a summary of its diagnostic traits.” Although the “quiet revolution” in biodiversity informatics has generated numerous online resources, including some directly inspired by Wilson's essay (e.g., "http://ispecies.org":http://ispecies.org, "http://www.eol.org":http://www.eol.org), we are still some way from the goal of having available online all relevant information about a species, such as its taxonomy, evolutionary history, genomics, morphology, ecology, and behaviour. While the biodiversity community has been developing a plethora of databases, some with overlapping goals and duplicated content, Wikipedia has been slowly growing to the point where it now has over 100,000 pages on biological taxa. My goal in this essay is to explore the idea that, largely independent of the efforts of biodiversity informatics and well-funded international efforts, Wikipedia ("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) has emerged as potentially the best platform for fulfilling E O Wilson’s vision

A phonograph record of the underwater calls of delphinapterus leucus

Originally issued as Reference No. 50-1, series later renamed WHOI-DelphinaplMus leucas (Pallas), variously called white porpoise, white whale, or beluga, has long been known as a vociferous species. It is an arctic form, generally restricted to waters north of N. Lat. 60°, except along the coast of eastern Asia, where it ranges as far south as the offing of southeastern Sakhalin, and along the coast of eastern North America, where it is normally abundant to about the same latitudes in the St. Lawrence estuary. It was in this region, in the lower Saguenay River, Quebec, that our records were made, in July 1949. In these restricted waters we have been fortunate in finding concentrations of Delphinapterus with no other aquatic sound-makers in evidence. For this and other reasons detailed before (1949, Science, Vol. 109, pp. 143-144, Feb. 11 ), we are convinced that all the sounds heard on this record were made under water by DelphinaplMus. This particular cetacean makes a very good subject, as it is especially conspicuous both optically and acoustically, and is easy to identify at sight--and, we now submit, likewise by ear

Four hydrophone array for acoustic three-dimensional location

This report describes a non-rigid, floating, four-hydrophone array that can give accurate three-dimensional locations for certain underwater sound sources, particularly for those that are close. For more distant sounds, the array can indicate good directions (bearings) but range is liable to be uncertain. A system for concurrent calibration permits periodic reassessment of hydrophone positions. Appendix: Programming and mathematics for computer analysis of the array data are by Donna Ekstrand and Mary Hunt.Supported by the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-66-C0241; NR 083-004

Viage del Parnaso

XII, 280 p

A comparison of Northeast Atlantic killer whale (Orcinus orca) stereotyped call repertoires

Funding for data collection was provided by the BBC Natural History Unit, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (grant number SFRH/BD/30303/2006), the Icelandic Research Fund (i. Rannsóknasjóður) through a START Postdoctoral Fellowship (grant number 120248042) and a Project Grant (grant number 163060‐051), the National Geographic Global Exploration Fund (grant number GEFNE65‐12), a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship (project number 297116), the Office of Naval Research (grant number N00014‐08‐1‐0984), and a Russell Trust Award from the University of St. Andrews.Killer whale call repertoires can provide information on social connections among groups and populations. Killer whales in Iceland and Norway exhibit similar ecology and behavior, are genetically related, and are presumed to have been in contact before the collapse of the Atlanto-Scandian herring stock in the 1960s. However, photo-identification suggests no recent movements between Iceland and Norway but regular movement between Iceland and Shetland. Acoustic recordings collected between 2005 and 2016 in Iceland, Norway, and Shetland were used to undertake a comprehensive comparison of call repertoires of Northeast Atlantic killer whales. Measurements of time and frequency parameters of calls from Iceland (n = 4,037) and Norway (n = 1,715) largely overlapped in distribution, and a discriminant function analysis had low correct classification rate. No call type matches were confirmed between Iceland and Norway or Shetland and Norway. Three call types matched between Iceland and Shetland. Therefore, this study suggests overall similarities in time and frequency parameters but some divergence in call type repertoires. This argues against presumed past contact between Icelandic and Norwegian killer whales and suggests that they may not have been one completely mixed population.PostprintPeer reviewe

Quantifying parameters of bottlenose dolphin signature whistles

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of John Wiley & Sons for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Mammal Science 25 (2009): 976-986, doi:10.1111/j.1748-7692.2009.00289.x.Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) produce individually distinctive vocalizations called signature whistles, first described by Melba and David Caldwell (1965). The Caldwells observed that isolated, captive dolphins produced whistles with individually distinctive frequency contours, or patterns of frequency changes over time, and hypothesized that these whistles were used to transmit identity information (Caldwell and Caldwell 1965; Caldwell et al. 1990). Since the Caldwell’s work with isolated, captive dolphins, several studies have documented signature whistles in a variety of contexts, including free-swimming captive dolphins (e.g., Janik and Slater 1998; Tyack 1986), briefly restrained wild dolphins (e.g., Sayigh et al. 1990, 2007, Watwood et al. 2005), and free-ranging wild dolphins (e.g., Watwood 2003; Watwood et al. 2004, 2005; Buckstaff 2004; Cook et al. 2004). Janik and Slater (1998) demonstrated that signature whistles are used to maintain group cohesion, thus supporting the Caldwells’ hypothesis. Janik et al. (2006) verified experimentally that bottlenose dolphins respond to signature whistles produced by familiar conspecifics even after voice featured have been removed, reinforcing the notion that the contour of a signature whistle carries identity information.This work was funded by a Protect Wild Dolphins grant from the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, issued to LSS and RSW