Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration

Animals produce vocalizations in many different situations including aggressive interactions, stressful conditions, social bonding, play, feeding, and reproduction. As such, vocalizations have the potential to serve as accurate monitors of animal behavior and important indicators of animal well-being in zoological settings and in wild habitats. Dolphins and whales, especially, rely heavily on sound production and hearing. In fact, the immense variety of vocalizations produced by beluga whales has earned them the nickname, “Canaries of the Sea.”

Vocalizations recorded from underwater microphones known as hydrophones along with detailed behavioral observations of the beluga whales housed at the aquarium allow researchers to begin drawing connections between the different types of vocalizations and the behaviors associated with them. Dr. Peter Scheifele and colleagues from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center use these recordings and behavioral observations to develop sophisticated computer programs similar to voiceprinting technologies from human speech recognition programs to classify the complex beluga vocalizations and determine how they relate to behavior. The development of such computer programs will provide a non-invasive method to monitor the behavior and well-being of beluga whales both in aquaria and wild habitats. For example, animal caretakers in zoos and aquaria could use vocal monitoring to detect distress allowing the caretakers to quickly identify and resolve stressful situations. Moreover, researchers studying populations of wild belugas could use vocal recordings to non-invasively monitor group composition and behavior including feeding, reproduction, aggression, and mother-calf interactions. Vocal monitoring in wild belugas could also provide indications of stress in response to environmental challenges such as global warming, oil and gas exploration, construction, shipping traffic, and noise and chemical pollution.