Comparing call-based versus subunit-based methods for categorizing Norwegian killer whale, Orcinus orca, vocalizations
Citable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/4429As published
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.09.020Keyword
Killer whale; Subunit; Vocalisations; Call typeAbstract
Students of animal communication face significant challenges when deciding how to
categorise calls into subunits, calls, and call series. Here, we use algorithms designed to parse
human speech to test different approaches for categorising calls of killer whales. Killer whale
vocalisations have traditionally been categorised by humans into discrete call types. These calls
often contain internal spectral shifts, periods of silence, and synchronously produced low and
high frequency components, suggesting that they may be composed of subunits. We describe
and compare three different approaches for modelling Norwegian killer whale calls. The first
method considered the whole call as the basic unit of analysis. Inspired by human speech
processing techniques, the second and third methods represented the calls in terms of subunits.
Subunits may provide a more parsimonious approach to modelling the vocal stream since (1)
there were fewer subunits than call types; (2) nearly 75% of all call types shared at least one
subunit. We show that contour traces from stereotyped Norwegian killer whale calls yielded
similar automatic classification performance using either whole calls or subunits. We also
demonstrate that subunits derived from Norwegian stereotyped calls were detected in some
Norwegian variable (non-stereotyped) calls as well as the stereotyped calls of other killer whale
populations. Further work is required to test whether killer whales use subunits to generate and
categorize their vocal repertoire.
Description
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Animal Behaviour 81 (2011): 377-386, doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.09.020.
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Suggested Citation
Preprint: Shapiro, Ari D., Tyack, Peter L., Seneff, Stephanie, "Comparing call-based versus subunit-based methods for categorizing Norwegian killer whale, Orcinus orca, vocalizations", 2010-08-13, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.09.020, https://hdl.handle.net/1912/4429Related items
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