Patterned burst-pulse vocalizations of the northern right whale dolphin, Lissodelphis borealis.
Vocalizations from the northern right whale dolphin, Lissodelphis borealis, were recorded during a combined visual and acoustic shipboard survey of cetacean populations off the west coast of the United States. Seven of twenty single-species schools of L. borealis produced click and pulsed vocalizations. No whistles were detected during any of the encounters. Clicks associated with burst-pulse vocalizations were lower in frequency and shorter in duration than clicks associated with echolocation. All burst-pulse sounds were produced in a series containing 6-18 individual burst-pulses. These burst-pulse series were stereotyped and repeated. A total of eight unique burst-pulse series were detected. Variation in the temporal characteristics of like units compared across repeated series was less than variation among all burst-pulses. These stereotyped burst-pulse series may play a similar communicative role as do stereotyped whistles found in other delphinid species.
Rankin
Shannon
S
Southwest Fisheries Science Center, 8604 La Jolla Shores Drive, La Jolla, California 92037, USA.
Oswald
Julie
J
Barlow
Jay
J
Lammers
Marc
M
D000818:Animals; D002140:California; D004289:Dolphins; D010140:Pacific Ocean; D012767:Ships; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013045:Species Specificity; D014828:Vocalization, Animal