title: Dolphin continuous auditory vigilance for five days.
abstract: The present report describes the first study of continuous vigilance in dolphins. Two adult bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), WEN (male) and SAY (female), maintained a very high detection rate of randomly presented, infrequent, 1.5-s target tones in a background of frequent 0.5-s equal-amplitude tones over five continuous 120-h sessions. The animals were able to maintain high levels (WEN 97, 87, 99%; SAY 93, 96%) of target detection without signs of sleep deprivation as indicated by behavior, blood indices or marked sleep rebound during 24 h of continuous post-experiment observation. Target response time overall (F = 0.384; P = 0.816) did not change between day 1 and day 5. However, response time was significantly slower (F = 21.566, P = 0.019) during the night (21.00-04.00 h) when the dolphins would have ordinarily been resting or asleep.
authors.affiliation: Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego, Code 235, 53560 Hull Street, San Diego, CA 92152-5001, USA. sridgway@UCSD.edu
authors.forename: Sam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ridgway
authors.forename: Don
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Carder
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Finneran
authors.forename: Mandy
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keogh
authors.forename: Tricia
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kamolnick
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Todd
authors.forename: Allen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Goldblatt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001307:Auditory Perception; D050681:Bottle-Nosed Dolphin / Q000502:physiology*; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D012119:Respiration; D012890:Sleep; D013997:Time Factors; D014851:Wakefulness