Research Overview:
Man-made noise is a significant issue for many animals, including dolphins, and previous studies have demonstrated that increased noise can change animals’ individual behavior. However, there is very little research on how noise impacts animals actively working together. Our previous studies on dolphin cooperation and communication showed that dolphins can solve a cooperative task, understand their partner’s role in a cooperative task, and use vocal cues to cooperate with precision. We partnered with Pernille Sørensen and Dr. Stephanie King at the University of Bristol, to design a study using that same cooperative task, but added an underwater speaker playing noise during the trials.
The study showed that dolphins working collaboratively are less successful in the presence of man made noise. They do try to compensate for the increasing noise by whistling louder and longer, but even with that the dolphins were still not succeeding the way they were with ambient lagoon sound. These findings show that noise can impair the effectiveness of animals working together, which could negatively impact dolphins’ ability to coordinate during important behaviors like hunting for food.
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Anthropogenic Noise Impairs Cooperation in Bottlenose Dolphins
Delta and Reese model the DTAGs they wore for this study. Attached by light suction cups, the DTAGs contain hydrophones that recorded their whistles.
