Dear all,

Apologies for cross posting.

We are pleased to announce the publication of the following paper about the whistle of humpback dolphin in China:

Zhitao Wang, Liang Fang, Wenjing Shi, Kexiong Wang, and Ding Wang (2013). Whistle characteristics of free-ranging Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) in Sanniang Bay, China. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 133, 2479-89.

 

The abstract appears below.  Please download from http://asadl.org/jasa/resource/1/jasman/v133/i4/p2479_s1  or contact Zhitao Wang onwangzt@ihb.ac.cn, if you would like a copy of the PDF.

 

ABSTRACT: Broadband recording systems were adapted to characterize the whistle characteristics of free-ranging Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) in Sanniang Bay, China. A total of 4630 whistles were recorded, of which 2651 with legible contours and relatively good signal-to-noise ratios were selected for statistical analysis. Of the six tonal types (i.e., flat, down, rise, convex, Ushaped, and sine), flat (N=1426; 39.45%) was the most predominant, followed by down (N=754; 23.35%) and rise (N=489; 12.34%). The whistles showed a short duration (mean6SD: 370.196285.61 ms; range: 29–2923 ms), a broad frequency range (fundamental contour ranged from 0.52 to 33 kHz), and two harmonics (mean6SD: 1.9062.74, with the maximum frequency of harmonics beyond 96 kHz). Whistles without gaps and stairs accounted for 76.7% and 86.4%, respectively. No significant interspecies differences in frequency parameters were observed compared with S. teuszii, which is inconsistent with morphological taxonomies but confirms phylogenetic results, thus suggesting a close relation between Chinese S. chinensis and Atlantic S. teuszii. Significant intra- and interspecific differences in the genus Sousa were also observed, indicating that animal vocalization may not be limited by genetically determined traits but could also be a function of local habitat adaptation.

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Wang Zhitao,   Doctoral candidate 
Institute of Hydrobiology,
The Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Donghu East Road 5#,
Wuhan 430074, P.R. China
http://english.ihb.cas.cn/
Email: wangzt@ihb.ac.cn
Tel: 86-27-87801331;

Mobile: 86-15972986197
Fax: 86-27-87491267