Classification of dolphin echolocation clicks by energy and frequency distributions

Dolphins demonstrate an adaptive control over echolocation click production, but little is known of the manner or degree with which control is exercised. Echolocation clicks (N approximately 30,000) were collected from an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) performing object discrimination tasks in order to investigate differential click production. Seven categories of clicks were identified using the spectral conformation and relative position of -3 and -10 dB peaks. A counterpropagation network utilizing 16 inputs, 50 hidden units, and 8 output units was trained to classify clicks using the same spectral variables. The network classified novel clicks with 92% success. Additional echolocation clicks (N > 24,000) from two other dolphins were submitted to the network for classification. Classified echolocation clicks were analyzed for animal specific differences, changes in predominant click type within click trains, and task-related specificity. Differences in animal and task performance may influence click type and click train length.