Differences in acoustic features of vocalizations produced by killer whales cross-socialized with bottlenose dolphins

Musser, Whitney B.; Bowles, Ann E.; Grebner, Dawn M.; Crance, Jessica L.

doi:10.1121/1.4893906

Cited by 32 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Many consider whistles as communication or social sounds (Au, 1993;Musser et al, 2014;King and Janik, 2015). Their simultaneous use while searching with sonar clicks suggests that dolphins may be adept at doing two things at once -making decisions about food capture and communicating with other animals in the process.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On doing two things at once: dolphin brain and nose coordinate sonar clicks, buzzes, and emotional squeals with social sounds during fish capture

Ridgway

Dibble

Alstyne

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Dolphins fishing alone in open waters may whistle without interrupting their sonar clicks as they find and eat or reject fish. Our study is the first to match sound and video from the dolphin with sound and video from near the fish. During search and capture of fish, free-swimming dolphins carried cameras to record video and sound. A hydrophone in the far field near the fish also recorded sound. From these two perspectives, we studied the time course of dolphin sound production during fish capture. Our observations identify the instant of fish capture. There are three consistent acoustic phases: sonar clicks locate the fish; about 0.4 s before capture, the dolphin clicks become more rapid to form a second phase, the terminal buzz; at or just before capture, the buzz turns to an emotional squeal (the victory squeal), which may last 0.2 to 20 s after capture. The squeals are pulse bursts that vary in duration, peak frequency and amplitude. The victory squeal may be a reflection of emotion triggered by brain dopamine release. It may also affect prey to ease capture and/or it may be a way to communicate the presence of food to other dolphins. Dolphins also use whistles as communication or social sounds. Whistling during sonar clicking suggests that dolphins may be adept at doing two things at once. We know that dolphin brain hemispheres may sleep independently. Our results suggest that the two dolphin brain hemispheres may also act independently in communication.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On doing two things at once: dolphin brain and nose coordinate sonar clicks, buzzes, and emotional squeals with social sounds during fish capture

Ridgway

Dibble

Alstyne

et al. 2015

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…For example, Bain (1986) described a 10 year old female captured off Iceland mimicking the calls from a 13 year old female captured in Canada after sharing a tank for several years. Captive killer whales that were housed with bottlenose dolphins were reported to produce dolphin type chirps (Musser et al, 2014). found that a captive killer whale calf learned calls selectively from its mother, but demonstrated that two captive juvenile male killer whales learned new calls and altered their repertoires to match that of an unrelated adult male with whom they were most strongly associated.…”

Section: Vocal Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural evolution of killer whale calls: background, mechanisms and consequences

Filatova

Samarra

Deecke

et al. 2015

Behav

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Cultural evolution is a powerful process shaping behavioural phenotypes of many species including our own. Killer whales are one of the species with relatively well-studied vocal culture. Pods have distinct dialects comprising a mix of unique and shared call types; calves adopt the call repertoire of their matriline through social learning. We review different aspects of killer whale acoustic communication to provide insights into the cultural transmission and gene-culture co-evolution processes that produce the extreme diversity of group and population repertoires. We argue that the cultural evolution of killer whale calls is not a random process driven by steady error accumulation alone: temporal change occurs at different speeds in different components of killer whale repertoires, and constraints in call structure and horizontal transmission often degrade the phylogenetic signal. We discuss the implications from bird song and human linguistic studies, and propose several hypotheses of killer whale dialect evolution.

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“…usage learning) cannot be completely ruled out without further experiments, the aggregate data from these studies indicate that cetaceans and pinnipeds do exhibit vocal learning. Interestingly, recent data suggest that killer whales can alter their vocalizations to match those of dolphins when the two species socialize (40, 41), and dolphin calls do not appear to be “copied” from a tutor like songbird vocal learning, but rather appear to be unique to each animal (40). Even more remarkable is the evidence that cetaceans that spend time with humans can mimic human speech (42).…”

Section: Vocal Learning: What Is It and Who Has It?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Animal Models of Speech and Vocal Communication Deficits Associated With Psychiatric Disorders

Konopka

Roberts

2016

Biological Psychiatry

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Disruptions in speech, language and vocal communication are hallmarks of several neuropsychiatric disorders, most notably autism spectrum disorders. Historically, the use of animal models to dissect molecular pathways and connect them to behavioral endophenotypes in cognitive disorders has proven to be an effective approach for developing and testing disease-relevant therapeutics. The unique aspects of human language when compared to vocal behaviors in other animals make such an approach potentially more challenging. However, the study of vocal learning in species with analogous brain circuits to humans may provide entry points for understanding this human-specific phenotype and diseases. Here, we review animal models of vocal learning and vocal communication, and specifically link phenotypes of psychiatric disorders to relevant model systems. Evolutionary constraints in the organization of neural circuits and synaptic plasticity result in similarities in the brain mechanisms for vocal learning and vocal communication. Comparative approaches and careful consideration of the behavioral limitations among different animal models can provide critical avenues for dissecting the molecular pathways underlying cognitive disorders that disrupt speech, language and vocal communication.

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Differences in acoustic features of vocalizations produced by killer whales cross-socialized with bottlenose dolphins

Cited by 32 publications

References 56 publications

On doing two things at once: dolphin brain and nose coordinate sonar clicks, buzzes, and emotional squeals with social sounds during fish capture

On doing two things at once: dolphin brain and nose coordinate sonar clicks, buzzes, and emotional squeals with social sounds during fish capture

Cultural evolution of killer whale calls: background, mechanisms and consequences

Animal Models of Speech and Vocal Communication Deficits Associated With Psychiatric Disorders

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