Off-axis effects on the multi-pulse structure of sperm whale coda clicks

Tyler M. Schulz; Hal Whitehead; Luke Rendell

doi:10.1121/1.3075598

Off-axis effects on the multi-pulse structure of sperm whale coda clicks

Tyler M. Schulz, Hal Whitehead, Luke Rendell

Medicine

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) clicks have a multi-pulse structure, a result of the reflection of sound energy between air sacs in the spermaceti organ. Although previous research revealed that usual clicks (used for echolocation) recorded away from a vocalizing whale's longitudinal axis have waveforms with poorly defined pulse structures, it has been unknown whether sperm whale coda clicks (used for communication) show similar off-axis effects. To address this knowledge gap, a hydrophone array was used to localize vocalizing sperm whales, and the waveforms of coda clicks recorded from different aspects were examined. Coda clicks recorded close to the whale's acoustic axis showed well-defined multi-pulsed waveforms, while those recorded off-axis did not. As for usual clicks, this suggests that sound energy radiates directly into the water upon reflection off the frontal sac.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1768-1773
Number of pages	6
Journal	Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Volume	125
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1121/1.3075598
Publication status	Published - 2009

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors wish to acknowledge the valuable assistance and suggestions given by M. Wahlberg concerning acoustic localization. We also wish to thank R. Lang, T. Beran, and D. Heffler for their advice and assistance with GPS processing. We are grateful to the International Fund for Animal Welfare and, in particular, to D. Gillespie for allowing us to use RAINBOW CLICK . We also appreciate the assistance of S. Gero, M. Marcoux, and E. Johnson with calibration tests and fieldwork. The equipment and fieldwork for this project were funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grants to H.W. T.M.S. was supported by a NSERC pre-doctoral scholarship and an Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship. L.R. was supported by a NERC Post-doctoral Fellowship (No. NER/I/S/2002/00632)

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
Acoustics and Ultrasonics

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Cite this

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abstract = "Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) clicks have a multi-pulse structure, a result of the reflection of sound energy between air sacs in the spermaceti organ. Although previous research revealed that usual clicks (used for echolocation) recorded away from a vocalizing whale's longitudinal axis have waveforms with poorly defined pulse structures, it has been unknown whether sperm whale coda clicks (used for communication) show similar off-axis effects. To address this knowledge gap, a hydrophone array was used to localize vocalizing sperm whales, and the waveforms of coda clicks recorded from different aspects were examined. Coda clicks recorded close to the whale's acoustic axis showed well-defined multi-pulsed waveforms, while those recorded off-axis did not. As for usual clicks, this suggests that sound energy radiates directly into the water upon reflection off the frontal sac.",

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Off-axis effects on the multi-pulse structure of sperm whale coda clicks

Abstract

Bibliographical note

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

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