Whitlow W.L. Au - Böcker

Cetaceans inhabit oceans, seas and even some rivers throughout the world. Hearing and sound production are thought to serve crucial functions in the behavior, natural history or life cycle of all of these animals. Although difficulties in studying large aquatic animals have limited experimental auditory research on many species, knowledge about the acoustic behavior of these animals has been increasing dramatically. In this volume, experts in different areas of the field provide an overview of the bioacoustics of whales and dolphins as well as a thorough introduction to the subject for investigators of hearing in other animals. Topics covered include the structure and function of cetacean auditory systems, the unique sound production system of odontocetes, acoustic communication, psychoacoustics, echolocation and models of sound propagation.

Over the ages, humans have always been fascinated by dolphins. This fascination heightened in the 1950s when oceanariums and aquariums began to use dolphins as show performers to demonstrate their prowess and display how tractable and trainable they were, in part due to their extraordinary ability to echolocate.This is the first book to present a comprehensive and organized treatise on dolphin biosonar. Such an effort is long overdue, since there is a paucity of books on this subject. The book introduces concepts ranging from physics to the creation of mathematical models as an aid to the quantification and understanding of biosonar capabilities. Topics further range from auditory pathways and processes, to the anatomy of the dolphin's head, to signal processing models, to a comparison of the sonar of bats and dolphins.

Cetaceans inhabit oceans, seas and even some rivers throughout the world. Hearing and sound production are thought to serve crucial functions in the behavior, natural history or life cycle of all of these animals. Although difficulties in studying large aquatic animals have limited experimental auditory research on many species, knowledge about the acoustic behavior of these animals has been increasing dramatically. In this volume, experts in different areas of the field provide an overview of the bioacoustics of whales and dolphins as well as a thorough introduction to the subject for investigators of hearing in other animals. Topics covered include the structure and function of cetacean auditory systems, the unique sound production system of odontocetes, acoustic communication, psychoacoustics, echolocation and models of sound propagation.