title: Guyana dolphins (Sotalia guianensis) from Costa Rica emit whistles that vary with surface behaviors.
abstract: Guyana dolphins show remarkable intraspecific whistle variation. This variation has been largely explained in terms of distance among populations; however, other factors such as behavior may also be important. A broadband recording system recorded the whistles of Guyana dolphins under three behavioral states. A discriminant analysis found that during social and travel events, dolphins emit whistles with high delta and minimum frequency, respectively. Whistle duration was also important in discriminating behaviors. This study indicates that behavior is an important factor contributing to whistle variation of Guyana dolphins. Understanding how dolphin whistles vary with behavioral context will advance our understanding of dolphin communication and enable appropriate comparative studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Vermont, 109 Carrigan Drive, Burlington, Vermont 05405 lmaycollado@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Laura J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: May-Collado
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003364:Costa Rica; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D004289:Dolphins / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D012919:Social Behavior; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013045:Species Specificity; D013550:Swimming; D013997:Time Factors; D014828:Vocalization, Animal