• Acoustic analysis of bottlenos...

Treffer: Acoustic analysis of bottlenose dolphin vocalizations for behavioral classification in controlled settings.

Title:
Acoustic analysis of bottlenose dolphin vocalizations for behavioral classification in controlled settings.
Authors:
Screpanti L; Department of Information Engineering, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy., Di Nardo F; Department of Information Engineering, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy., De Marco R; Institute of Biological Resources and Marine Biotechnology (IRBIM), National Research Council (CNR), Ancona, Italy., Furlati S; Oltremare Marine Park, Riccione, Italy., Bucci G; Oltremare Marine Park, Riccione, Italy., Lucchetti A; Institute of Biological Resources and Marine Biotechnology (IRBIM), National Research Council (CNR), Ancona, Italy.; National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy., Scaradozzi D; Department of Information Engineering, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy.; National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy.; ANcybernetics, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy.
Source:
PloS one [PLoS One] 2025 Dec 03; Vol. 20 (12), pp. e0336419. Date of Electronic Publication: 2025 Dec 03 (Print Publication: 2025).
Publication Type:
Journal Article
Language:
English
Journal Info:
Publisher: Public Library of Science Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101285081 Publication Model: eCollection Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1932-6203 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 19326203 NLM ISO Abbreviation: PLoS One Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s):
Original Publication: San Francisco, CA : Public Library of Science
MeSH Terms:
Bottle-Nosed Dolphin*/physiology , Vocalization, Animal*/physiology , Acoustics* , Behavior, Animal*/physiology, Animals ; Female ; Male ; Sound Spectrography
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Entry Date(s):
Date Created: 20251203 Date Completed: 20251203 Latest Revision: 20251206
Update Code:
20251206
PubMed Central ID:
PMC12674578
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0336419
PMID:
41335610
Database:
MEDLINE

Weitere Informationen

Understanding how bottlenose dolphins adjust their vocal behavior in response to daily routines can provide insights into social communication and welfare assessment in managed care environments. This study presents a detailed analysis of bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) vocal behavior in relation to different daily activities within a controlled environment at Oltremare Marine Park (Riccione, Italy). 24 hours of continuous acoustic recordings were collected from seven dolphins during a typical day at the marine park, including training, feeding, playing, and unstructured activities. Signals were analyzed to quantify the variations in type and number of vocalizations in relation to dolphin activity. 3,111 whistles were manually extracted and stored as both normalized audio files and high-resolution spectrograms. Additionally, an automated algorithm identified 1,277 pulsed vocalizations, classified into echolocation click trains, burst-pulse sounds, and feeding buzzes, using signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and inter-click interval criteria. Results revealed a significant increase in vocalization rates during structured activities compared to unstructured periods (p < 0.001). This trend was consistently observed across all four vocalization types. Notably, play sessions elicited the highest rates of pulsed vocalizations (p < 0.01), suggesting enhanced social and exploratory behaviors, i.e., interactions with conspecifics as well as curiosity-driven engagement with the environment. To test dataset reliability and usability, signal quality was analyzed by evaluating SNR. To support future research in marine mammal bioacoustics, behavioral ecology, and Artificial-Intelligence-based acoustic monitoring, the full annotated dataset was released as an open-access resource.
(Copyright: © 2025 Screpanti et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.