Odontocetes
Typically 10 - 170 kHz
In this section, we organize our odontocete species list by Sperm whale, Delphinidae (broadband, 30-50 kHz peak, and blackfish), Beaked whales, and narrow high-band frequency species (Porpoise, Kogiidae). Each section includes call types, spectra imagery, and wigner plots if applicable. Below is a figure differentiating inter-click-interval ranges of these odontocete groups.
Sperm whale
This section covers all sperm whale calls analyzed by NEFSC passive acoustics branch. A list of sperm whale call types and spectrogram examples are included below.
Scientific name: Physeter macrocephalus
Code: SPWH
Call types:
- Sperm whale coda
- Sperm whale social: coda
- Makara call-type code: SPCODA
- Sperm whale social: coda
- Sperm whale creak
- Sperm whale terminal foraging buzz
- Makara call-type code: SPCREAK
- Sperm whale terminal foraging buzz
- Sperm whale foraging
- When there’s a mix of sperm whale foraging call types (i.e. usual clicks and buzzes)
- Makara call-type code: SPFORG
- When there’s a mix of sperm whale foraging call types (i.e. usual clicks and buzzes)
- Sperm whale slow click/ clangs
- Sperm whale social: slow clicks and clangs
- Makara call-type code: SPSLCC
- Sperm whale social: slow clicks and clangs
- Sperm whale social buzz
- Sperm whale social: social buzz
- Makara call-type code: SPSOCBZ
- Sperm whale social: social buzz
- Sperm whale social mix
- When there’s a mix of sperm whale social call types (i.e. codas & social buzzes)
- Makara call-type code: SPMIX
- When there’s a mix of sperm whale social call types (i.e. codas & social buzzes)
- Sperm whale usual click
- Sperm whale echolocation click
- Makara call-type code: SPUSC
- Sperm whale echolocation click
Spectrograms showing the Acoustic Events associated with trumpet emissions using Raven 2.0 (FFT and Hanning window size 1024 (A) and 512 (B, C, D), 50% overlap). A Regular, B, C, D multi-pattern arrangements (Pace et al. 2021)
Dolphins (Broadband, 30- 50 kHz peak, Blackfish)
Dolphinid and blackfish species produce various clicks and whistles. Dolphinid specie/click pairings are usually ground truthed used visual pairing techniques such as towed arrays. Due to the difficulty of pairing dolphinid species with their clicks, NEFSC PAB groups dolphin call types together using the following list. Whistles are more easily distinguished between species - spectrograms are included under each specie.
Call types across dolphin groups:
- Odontocete buzz
- Dolphin buzzes
- Makara call-type code: ODBZ
- Dolphin buzzes
- Odontocete impulsive
- Dolphin clicks
- Makara call-type code: ODCLICK
- Dolphin clicks
- Odontocete mixed calls
- When there’s a mix of whistles, clicks, burst pulses, etc. for dolphins
- Makara call-type code: ODMIX
- When there’s a mix of whistles, clicks, burst pulses, etc. for dolphins
- Odontocete whistle
- Dolphin whistles
- Makara call-type code: ODWHIS
- Dolphin whistles
- Odontocete burst pulse
- Dolphin burse pulses
- Makara call-type code: ODBP
- Dolphin burse pulses
Broadband
Bottlenose dolphin
Scientific name: Turiops truncatus
Makara species code: BODO
Short beaked Common dolphin
Scientific name: Delphinus delphis
Makara species code: SADO
30-50 kHz peak
Rissos dolphin
Scientific name: Grampus griseus
Makara species code: GRAM
Atlantic spotted dolphin
Scientific name: Stenella frontalis
Makara species code: WSDO
Striped dolphin
Scientific name: Stenella coeruleoalba
Makara species code: STDO
Spinner dolphin
Scientific name: Stenella longirostris
Makara species code: SNDO
Blackfish
Along with belugas and narwhales, blackfish can biphonate - produce multiple frequencies at once. This is observed in their pulsed calls (example below), and is used in species identification. A click spectra for NEFSC PAB blackfish species is included below.
Spectrographic example of a pilot whale pulsed call. Calls may consist of two components, an upper frequency component (UFC) that is a narrow-band tone, and a lower frequency component (LFC) that is a broadband pulse. The pulse repetition rate (PRR) is reflected by the sideband interval (SBI). Elements are distinguished by abrupt shifts in the PRR (Nemiroff & Whitehead 2009).
False killer whale
Scientific name: Pseudorca crassidens
Makara species code: FKWH
Short finned pilot whale
Scientific name: Globicephala macrorhynchus
Makara species code: SFPW
Globicephala spp.
Beaked Whales
Beaked whales produce two types of clicks (described below). Included is a spectrogram of a frequency-moduled beaked whale click and spectra plot encompassing all study species in this section (excluding northern bottlenose whale).
Call types across beaked whale groups:
- Beaked whale frequency modulated upsweeps
- Beaked whale foraging clicks
- Makara call-type code: BWFMUP
- Beaked whale foraging clicks
- Beaked whale surface click
- Beaked whale communication, does not contain frequency-modulation
- Makara call-type code: BWCLICK
- Beaked whale communication, does not contain frequency-modulation
Beaked whale click spectra plot (DeAngelis et al. 2018)
Sowerby’s beaked whale
Scientific name: Mesoplodon bidens
Makara species code: SOBW
Blainville’s beaked whale
Scientific name: Mesoplodon densirostris
Makara species code: BLBW
Gervais’ beaked whale
Scientific name: Mesoplodon europaeus
Makara species code: GEBW
True’s beaked whale
Scientific name: Mesoplodon mirus
Makara species code: TRBW
Cuvier’s beaked whale
Scientific name: Ziphius cavirostris
Makara species code: CUBW
Gulf of Mexico’s Beaked whale (BWG, unknown)
Scientific name: Ziphiidae sp.
Makara species code: BWG
Narrow high-band frequency
Narrow high-band frequency species include porpoises and Kogiidae species (Pygmy and Dwarf sperm whales). Both groups produce indifferentiable clicks (shown in Wigner plot). Clicks are differentiated by recording location - nearshore narrow high-band frequency clicks are denoted as porpoise clicks, offshore as Kogiidae clicks (map below). Porpoises also produce buzzes.
Call types across high-band frequency group:
- Narrow band high frequency click
- Narrow band high frequency clicks used by kogia and porpoises
- Makara call-type code: NBHF
- Narrow band high frequency clicks used by kogia and porpoises
DeAngelis, A. 2023
Harbor porpoise
Scientific name: Phocoena phocoena
Code: HAPO
Call types:
- Porpoise buzz
- Buzzes used by porpoise species, either social or foraging
- Makara call-type code: POBZ
- Buzzes used by porpoise species, either social or foraging
Pygmy sperm whale
Scientific name: Kogia breviceps
Makara species code: PSWH
Dwarf sperm whale
Scientific name: Kogia sima
Makara species code: DSWH
Malinka et al. 2021
Sources
Annamaria Izzi DeAngelis, Joy E. Stanistreet, Simone Baumann-Pickering, Danielle M. Cholewiak; A description of echolocation clicks recorded in the presence of True’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon mirus). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1 November 2018; 144 (5): 2691–2700. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5067379
Chloe E. Malinka, Pernille Tønnesen, Charlotte A. Dunn, Diane E. Claridge, Tess Gridley, Simon H. Elwen, Peter Teglberg Madsen; Echolocation click parameters and biosonar behaviour of the dwarf sperm whale (Kogia sima). J Exp Biol 15 March 2021; 224 (6): jeb240689. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.240689
Malinka CE, Tønnesen P, Dunn CA, Claridge DE, Gridley T, Elwen SH, Teglberg Madsen P. Echolocation click parameters and biosonar behaviour of the dwarf sperm whale (Kogia sima). J Exp Biol. 2021 Mar 26;224(Pt 6):jeb240689. doi: 10.1242/jeb.240689
Nemiroff L, Whitehead H. Structural characteristics of pulsed calls of long-finned pilot whales Globicephala melas. Bioacoustics. 2009;19:67–92. doi: 10.1080/09524622.2009.9753615.
Pace, D.S., Lanfredi, C., Airoldi, S. et al. Trumpet sounds emitted by male sperm whales in the Mediterranean Sea. Sci Rep 11, 5867 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-84126-8