Summary
Pure tonal ‘whistle’ vocalizations from five species of dolphins found in the western North Atlantic had consistent, species-specific characteristics. The degree of differences between species, as based on the results of multivariate discriminant analysis (Fig. 2), correlated with the taxonomic and zoogeographic relations of the five dolphin species. Congeneric species had more similar vocalizations than species of different genera. Differences between sympatric species were greater than differences between allopatric species. Of the six whistle parameters measured, maximum frequency had the lowest coefficient of variation for all five species, and duration and number of inflection points had the highest coefficients of variation for all five species.
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Steiner, W.W. Species-specific differences in pure tonal whistle vocalizations of five western North Atlantic dolphin species. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 9, 241–246 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00299878
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00299878