Description and classification of echolocation clicks of Indian Ocean humpback (Sousa plumbea) and Indo-Pacific bottlenose (Tursiops aduncus) dolphins from Menai Bay, Zanzibar, East Africa ...

• Main Authors: Yang, Liangliang, Sharpe, Matt, Temple, Andrew, Jiddawi, Narriman, Xu, Xiaomei, Berggren, Per
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2020
• Subjects: coastal; Indian Ocean humpback dolphin; Sousa plumbea; Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin; Tursiops aduncus; Underwater sounds; echolocation clicks; Indian; Pacific; toothed whales
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zcrjdfn76; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.zcrjdfn76

Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is a powerful method to study the occurrence, movement and behavior of echolocating odontocetes (toothed whales) in the wild. However, in areas occupied by more than one species, echolocation clicks need to be classified into species. The present study investigated whether the echolocation clicks produced by small, at-risk, resident sympatric populations of Indian Ocean humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea) and Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) in Menai Bay, Zanzibar, East Africa, could be classified to allow species specific monitoring. Underwater sounds of S. plumbea and T. aduncus groups were recorded using a SoundTrap 202HF in January and June-August 2015. Eight acoustic parameters, i.e. -10 dB duration, peak, centroid, lower -3 and lower -10 dB frequencies, and -3 dB, -10 dB and root-mean-squared bandwidth, were used to describe and compare the two species’ echolocation clicks. Statistical analyses showed that S. plumbea clicks had significantly higher peak, ...