title: Discriminating between the vocalizations of Indo-Pacific humpback and Australian snubfin dolphins in Queensland, Australia.
abstract: Australian snubfin and Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins co-occur throughout most of their range in coastal waters of tropical Australia. Little is known of their ecology or acoustic repertoires. Vocalizations from humpback and snubfin dolphins were recorded in two locations along the Queensland coast during 2008 and 2010 to describe their vocalizations and evaluate the acoustic differences between these two species. Broad vocalization types were categorized qualitatively. Both species produced click trains burst pulses and whistles. Principal component analysis of the nine acoustic variables extracted from the whistles produced nine principal components that were input into discriminant function analyses to classify 96% of humpback dolphin whistles and about 78% of snubfin dolphin calls correctly. Results indicate clear acoustic differences between the vocal whistle repertoires of these two species. A stepwise routine identified two principal components as significantly distinguishable between whistles of each species: frequency parameters and frequency trend ratio. The capacity to identify these species using acoustic monitoring techniques has the potential to provide information on presence/absence, habitat use and relative abundance for each species.
authors.affiliation: School of Earth and Environmental Science, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Berg Soto
authors.affiliation: School of Earth and Environmental Science, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: Helene
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Marsh
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: Yvette
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Everingham
authors.affiliation: Murdoch University Cetacean Research Unit, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia 6150, Australia.
authors.forename: Joshua N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Cetacean Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab (CEBEL), School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia 5001, Australia.
authors.forename: Guido J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Parra
authors.affiliation: Cetacean Ecology and Acoustic Lab, School of Veterinary Science, University of Queensland, Gatton, Queensland 4343, Australia.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Noad
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D000818:Animals; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D004289:Dolphins / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011793:Queensland; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013045:Species Specificity; D013997:Time Factors; D014828:Vocalization, Animal