title: Acoustic behavior associated with cooperative task success in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus).
abstract: Although many species have proven capable of cooperating to achieve common goals, the role of communication in cooperation has received relatively little attention. Analysis of communication between partners is vital in determining whether actions are truly cooperative rather than serendipitous or learned via trial and error (Chalmeau and Gallo in Behav Process 35:101-111, 1996a. doi: 10.1016/0376-6357(95)00049-6 , Primates 37:39-47, 1996b. doi: 10.1007/BF02382918 ). Wild cetaceans often produce sounds during cooperative foraging, playing, and mating, but the role of these sounds in cooperative events is largely unknown. Here, we investigated acoustic communication between two male bottlenose dolphins while they cooperatively opened a container (Kuczaj et al. in Anim Cogn 18:543-550, 2015b. doi: 10.1007/s10071-014-0822-4 ). Analyses of whistles, burst pulses, and bi-phonations that occurred during four contexts (i.e., no container, no animals interacting with container, one animal interacting with container, and two animals interacting with container) revealed that overall sound production rate significantly increased during container interactions. Sound production rates were also significantly higher during cooperative successes than solo successes, suggesting that the coordination of efforts rather than the apparatus itself was responsible for the phonation increase. The most common sound type during cooperative successes was burst pulse signals, similar to past recordings of cooperative events in bottlenose dolphins (Bastian in Animal sonar systems. Laboratoire de Physiologie Acoustique, Jouy-en Josas, pp 803-873, 1967; Connor and Smolker 1996).
authors.affiliation: Dolphins Plus, Inc., 31 Corinne Pl, Key Largo, FL, 33037, USA. holli@dolphinsplus.com.
authors.forename: Holli C
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0178-5092
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Eskelinen
authors.affiliation: Dolphins Plus, Inc., 31 Corinne Pl, Key Largo, FL, 33037, USA.|University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive #5025, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA.
authors.forename: Kelley A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Winship
authors.affiliation: Dolphins Plus, Inc., 31 Corinne Pl, Key Largo, FL, 33037, USA.|University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive #5025, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA.
authors.forename: Brittany L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive #5025, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA.
authors.forename: Audra E M
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Ames
authors.affiliation: University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive #5025, Hattiesburg, MS, 39406, USA.
authors.forename: Stan A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Kuczaj
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D050681:Bottle-Nosed Dolphin; D008297:Male; D012919:Social Behavior; D014828:Vocalization, Animal
keywords: Atlantic bottlenose dolphin; Cognition; Communication; Cooperative behavior; Sound production; Tursiops truncatus