Frequency synchronization of blue whale calls near Pioneer Seamount.
Vocalizations of blue whales were recorded with a cabled hydrophone array at Pioneer Seamount, 50 miles off the California coast. Most calls occurred in repeated sequences of two-call pairs (A, then B). The B call is a frequency-modulated tone highly repeatable in form and pitch. A model of this sound is described which permits detecting very small frequency shifts. B calls are found to be aligned in frequency to about one part in 180. This requires very fine pitch discrimination and control over calling frequency, and suggests that synchronizing to a common frequency pattern carries some adaptive advantage. Some possibilities for acoustic sensing by whales requiring this fine frequency resolution are discussed.
Hoffman
Michael D
MD
Department of Physics and Astronomy, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California 94132, USA.
Garfield
Newell
N
Bland
Roger W
RW
D000162:Acoustics; D000818:Animals; D050616:Balaenoptera / Q000502:physiology*; D002140:California; D008954:Models, Biological; D010140:Pacific Ocean; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D012919:Social Behavior; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013997:Time Factors; D014828:Vocalization, Animal