The choreography of belonging : toothed whale spatial cohesion and acoustic communication
Thesis: Ph. D., Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2016. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references. To maintain the benefits...
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ftmit:oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/103336 2023-06-11T04:17:20+02:00 The choreography of belonging : toothed whale spatial cohesion and acoustic communication Toothed whale spatial cohesion and acoustic communication Macfarlane, Nicholas Blair Wootton Peter L. Tyack. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology. Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology 2016 179 pages application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103336 eng eng Massachusetts Institute of Technology http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103336 951620494 M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Biology Toothed whales Underwater acoustic telemetry Thesis 2016 ftmit 2023-05-29T08:19:23Z Thesis: Ph. D., Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2016. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references. To maintain the benefits of group membership, social animals need mechanisms to stay together and reunite if separated. This thesis explores the acoustic signals that dolphins use to overcome this challenge and mediate their complex relationships in a dynamic 3D environment. Bottlenose dolphins are the most extensively studied toothed whale, but research on acoustic behavior has been limited by an inability to identify the vocalizing individual or measure inter-animal distances in the wild. This thesis resolves these problems by simultaneously deploying acoustic tags on closely-associated pairs of known animals. These first reported deployments of acoustic tags on dolphins allowed me to characterize temporal patterns of vocal behavior on an individual level, uncovering large variation in vocal rates and inter-call waiting time between animals. Looking more specifically at signature whistles, a type of call often linked to cohesion, I found that when one animal produced its own signature whistle, its partner was more likely to respond with its own whistle. To better evaluate potential cohesion functions for signature whistles, I then modeled the probability of an animal producing a signature whistle at different times during a temporary separation and reunion from its partner. These data suggest that dolphins use signature whistles to signal a motivation to reunite and to confirm identity prior to rejoining their partner. To examine how cohesion is maintained during separations that do not include whistles, I then investigated whether dolphins could keep track of their partners by passively listening to conspecific echolocation clicks. Using a multi-pronged approach, I demonstrated that the passive detection range of echolocation clicks ... Thesis toothed whale toothed whales DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
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DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
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English |
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Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Biology Toothed whales Underwater acoustic telemetry |
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Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Biology Toothed whales Underwater acoustic telemetry Macfarlane, Nicholas Blair Wootton The choreography of belonging : toothed whale spatial cohesion and acoustic communication |
topic_facet |
Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Biology Toothed whales Underwater acoustic telemetry |
description |
Thesis: Ph. D., Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2016. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references. To maintain the benefits of group membership, social animals need mechanisms to stay together and reunite if separated. This thesis explores the acoustic signals that dolphins use to overcome this challenge and mediate their complex relationships in a dynamic 3D environment. Bottlenose dolphins are the most extensively studied toothed whale, but research on acoustic behavior has been limited by an inability to identify the vocalizing individual or measure inter-animal distances in the wild. This thesis resolves these problems by simultaneously deploying acoustic tags on closely-associated pairs of known animals. These first reported deployments of acoustic tags on dolphins allowed me to characterize temporal patterns of vocal behavior on an individual level, uncovering large variation in vocal rates and inter-call waiting time between animals. Looking more specifically at signature whistles, a type of call often linked to cohesion, I found that when one animal produced its own signature whistle, its partner was more likely to respond with its own whistle. To better evaluate potential cohesion functions for signature whistles, I then modeled the probability of an animal producing a signature whistle at different times during a temporary separation and reunion from its partner. These data suggest that dolphins use signature whistles to signal a motivation to reunite and to confirm identity prior to rejoining their partner. To examine how cohesion is maintained during separations that do not include whistles, I then investigated whether dolphins could keep track of their partners by passively listening to conspecific echolocation clicks. Using a multi-pronged approach, I demonstrated that the passive detection range of echolocation clicks ... |
author2 |
Peter L. Tyack. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology. Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Macfarlane, Nicholas Blair Wootton |
author_facet |
Macfarlane, Nicholas Blair Wootton |
author_sort |
Macfarlane, Nicholas Blair Wootton |
title |
The choreography of belonging : toothed whale spatial cohesion and acoustic communication |
title_short |
The choreography of belonging : toothed whale spatial cohesion and acoustic communication |
title_full |
The choreography of belonging : toothed whale spatial cohesion and acoustic communication |
title_fullStr |
The choreography of belonging : toothed whale spatial cohesion and acoustic communication |
title_full_unstemmed |
The choreography of belonging : toothed whale spatial cohesion and acoustic communication |
title_sort |
choreography of belonging : toothed whale spatial cohesion and acoustic communication |
publisher |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103336 |
genre |
toothed whale toothed whales |
genre_facet |
toothed whale toothed whales |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103336 951620494 |
op_rights |
M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 |
_version_ |
1768376422535004160 |