Branstetter Brian K, St Leger Judy, Acton Doug, Stewart John, Houser Dorian, Finneran James J, Jenkins Keith
National Marine Mammal Foundation, 2240 Shelter Island Drive, No. 200, San Diego, California 92106, USA.
Sea World San Diego, 500 Sea World Drive, San Diego, California 92109, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2017 Apr;141(4):2387. doi: 10.1121/1.4979116.
Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are one of the most cosmopolitan marine mammal species with potential widespread exposure to anthropogenic noise impacts. Previous audiometric data on this species were from two adult females [Szymanski, Bain, Kiehl, Pennington, Wong, and Henry (1999). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 108, 1322-1326] and one sub-adult male [Hall and Johnson (1972). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 51, 515-517] with apparent high-frequency hearing loss. All three killer whales had best sensitivity between 15 and 20 kHz, with thresholds lower than any odontocete tested to date, suggesting this species might be particularly sensitive to acoustic disturbance. The current study reports the behavioral audiograms of eight killer whales at two different facilities. Hearing sensitivity was measured from 100 Hz to 160 kHz in killer whales ranging in age from 12 to 52 year. Previously measured low thresholds at 20 kHz were not replicated in any individual. Hearing in the killer whales was generally similar to other delphinids, with lowest threshold (49 dB re 1 μPa) at approximately 34 kHz, good hearing (i.e., within 20 dB of best sensitivity) from 5 to 81 kHz, and low- and high-frequency hearing cutoffs (>100 dB re μPa) of 600 Hz and 114 kHz, respectively.
虎鲸（逆戟鲸）是分布最广的海洋哺乳动物物种之一，有可能广泛受到人为噪声的影响。此前关于该物种的听力测定数据来自两只成年雌性虎鲸[Szymanski、Bain、Kiehl、Pennington、Wong和Henry（1999年）。《美国声学学会杂志》108卷，第1322 - 1326页]以及一只亚成年雄性虎鲸[Hall和Johnson（1972年）。《美国声学学会杂志》51卷，第515 - 517页]，它们明显存在高频听力损失。这三只虎鲸的最佳听力灵敏度都在15至20千赫兹之间，其听阈低于迄今为止测试过的任何齿鲸，这表明该物种可能对声学干扰特别敏感。本研究报告了在两个不同设施中八只虎鲸的行为听力图。在年龄从12岁到52岁的虎鲸中，测量了从100赫兹到160千赫兹的听力灵敏度。之前在20千赫兹处测得的低听阈在任何个体中都未重现。虎鲸的听力总体上与其他海豚科动物相似，在约34千赫兹处有最低听阈（49分贝声压级相对于1微帕），在5至81千赫兹范围内听力良好（即 within 20分贝最佳灵敏度），低频和高频听力截止值（>100分贝声压级相对于微帕）分别为600赫兹和114千赫兹。
