Institute des Neurosciences Paris Saclay, CNRS UMR 9197, Université Paris Sud, Orsay, France; Grupo Ecología y Evolución de Vertebrados, Instituto de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Antioquia UdeA, Calle 70 No. 52-21, Medellin, Colombia; Fundación Macuáticos Colombia.
Laboratoire d'Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée UR 4443, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, F-93430, Villetaneuse, France.
Behav Processes. 2020 Dec;181:104255. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2020.104255. Epub 2020 Sep 28.
Bottlenose dolphins are social cetaceans that strongly rely on acoustic communication and signaling. The diversity of sounds emitted by the species has been structurally classified into whistles, clicks and burst-pulsed sounds. Although click sounds and individually-specific signature whistles have been largely studied, not much is known about non-signature whistles. Most studies that link behavior and whistle production conduct aerial behavioral observations and link the production of whistles to the general category of social interactions. The aim of this study was to determine if there was a correlation between the non-signature whistle production and the underwater behaviors of a group of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) under human care, during their free time in the absence of trainers. To do this we made audio-video recordings 15 min before and after 10 training sessions of eight dolphins in Boudewijn Seapark (Belgium). For the behavioral analysis we conducted focal follows on each individual based on six behavioral categories. For the acoustical analysis, carried out at the group level, we used the SIGID method to identify non-signature whistles (N = 661) and we classified them in six categories according to their frequency modulation. The occurrences of the six categories of whistles were highly collinear. Most importantly, non-signature whistle production was positively correlated with the time individuals spent slow swimming alone, and was negatively correlated with the time spent in affiliative body contact. This is the first analysis that links the production of non-signature whistles with particular underwater behaviors in this species.
宽吻海豚是一种社会性鲸目动物，它们强烈依赖声学通讯和信号。该物种发出的声音多样性在结构上可分为口哨声、咔哒声和爆发脉冲声。虽然点击声和个体特有的特征口哨声已经得到了广泛的研究，但对非特征口哨声知之甚少。大多数将行为与口哨产生联系起来的研究都是通过空中行为观察进行的，并将口哨的产生与社会互动的一般类别联系起来。本研究旨在确定在 Boudewijn Seapark（比利时）的 10 次训练课程中，在没有训练员的情况下，一组宽吻海豚（Tursiops truncatus）在自由时间内，非特征口哨声的产生与水下行为之间是否存在相关性。为此，我们在 8 只海豚的 10 次训练课程前和后各进行了 15 分钟的音频-视频记录。对于行为分析，我们根据六个行为类别对每个个体进行了焦点跟随。对于群体水平的声学分析，我们使用 SIGID 方法来识别非特征口哨声（N=661），并根据频率调制将它们分为六类。这六类口哨声的发生高度共线性。最重要的是，非特征口哨声的产生与个体独自慢速游泳的时间呈正相关，与亲和性身体接触的时间呈负相关。这是首次将非特征口哨声的产生与该物种特定的水下行为联系起来的分析。
