Dialects and Usage Patterns of Weddell Seal 'Leptonychotes weddelli' Underwater Vocalisations

Underwater recordings of vocalisations of Weddell seals were obtained at 8 locations within the Vestfold Hills (7) and Larsemann Hills (1).  The recordings were made near groups of seals on the ice during the mid to late part of the breeding season.  Recordings were obtained using a variety of hydrophones and both Sony Digital Audio Tape (130 during 1992 season) and standard analogue cassette (60 during 1991 season) formats.  Over 11,000 vocalizations were analyzed. The calls were classified into 12 major call types (Pahl et al. 1997 Australian Journal of Zoology 45:171-187).  The underwater repertoire is different than that of the seals at McMurdo Sound or the Palmer Penninsula (Thomas et al. 1988 Hydrobiologica 165:279-284).  The Weddell seals at the Vestfold Hills do not exhibit the between-fjord vocal differences reported by Morrice et al. (1994 Polar Biology 14:441-446).  The relative usage of each call type did not vary between the earlier and later recordings (Pahl et al. 1996 Australian Journal of Zoology 44:75-79).  The recordings are currently being used to support other studies on Weddell seal vocalizations.
Legend for ASAC_556.csv - csv text format.
The following legend describes the 39 variables in this file.  The codes for some of the variables are presented in the 1997 publication:
Pahl, B.C., Terhune, J.M., and Burton, H.R. 1997.  Repertoire and geographic variation in underwater vocalisations of Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii, Pinnipedia: Phocidae) at the Vestfold Hills, Antarctica. Australian Journal of Zoology 45: 171-187.
The fields in this dataset are:
VariableSubject or code
1LOCATION; recording location; see AJZ article, Figure 1
2DATE; reference day, (date of day 1 has been lost)
3YEAR; 1 = 1991, 2 = 1992
4CASSETTE; cassette number, identifies individual recordings
5CALNO; call number, case numbers of each call, sequential
6CTYPE; call type, provisional call type, subjective initial classification (see below)
7NOELM; number of elements (discrete sounds) in the call
8EL_NO; element within that call relating to next 12 variables, for variable 8, only data from the first element is used
9WVFRM; waveform of element, see AJZ article for codes
10CLSHP; call shape, see AJZ article, Figure 2 for codes
11E_D; duration of the first element (seconds)
12IND1; duration of the interval between the end of the first element and the start of the second element (seconds)
13CALLD; total duration of the call (all elements; seconds)
14INCD; duration between sequential calls (seconds)
15O_LAP; overlap, is call overlapped by another call? 0 = no, 1 = yes
16S2STM; unknown measure
17SFREQ; frequency at start of first element (Hz)
18EFREQ; frequency at end of first element (Hz)
19HFREQ; highest frequency of first element (Hz)
20LFREQ; lowest frequency of first element (Hz)
21E_NO; element number, half way through the call.  Data for the next 9 variables relate to this element, applies only to multiple element calls
22CLSHP; call shape of the middle element, same code as variable 10
23WVFRM: waveform of the middle element, same code as variable 9
24E_D; duration of the middle element (seconds)
25IND1; duration of the inter-element interval before the middle element
26IND2; duration of the inter-element interval after the middle element
27SFREQ; frequency at start of the middle element (Hz)
28EFREQ; frequency at end of middle element (Hz)
29HFREQ; highest frequency of middle element (Hz)
30LFREQ; lowest frequency of middle element (Hz)
31E_NO; element number of the last element of the call.  Data for the next 8 variables relate to this element, applies only to multiple element calls
32CLSHP; call shape of the last element, same code as variable 10
33WVFRM: waveform of the last element, same code as variable 9
34E_D; duration of the last element (seconds)
35IND2; duration of the inter-element interval before the last element
36SFREQ; frequency at start of the last element (Hz)
37EFREQ; frequency at end of last element (Hz)
38HFREQ; highest frequency of last element (Hz)
39LFREQ; lowest frequency of last element (Hz)
Codes for call types (variable 6).
The provisional call types were amalgamated into 50 call types that were arbitrarily numbered from 201 to 250.  These were subsequently classified into 13 broad categories (Pahl et al. 1997).  The amalgamation of the provisional call types of variable 6 into the 50 call types presented in Pahl et al. (1997) is as follows:
Call TypeProvisional Call Types (variable 6)
2011 7, 24, 36, 72, 31, 40, 73, 77, 107, 110, 31, 136
2023, 46, 54, 128, 33, 13, 140, 10, 25, 9, 139, 88, 46, 27, 126, 67, 91, 27,
126, 135
20359
204113
20514, 48, 69, 64, 49, 19, 92, 43, 75, 127, 99
206122, 124
2072, 41, 58, 93
20847, 138
20962, 132
210102
211115
21221, 23, 45, 35
21368, 80, 84
214114
2154
216118
21752, 78
2185, 6, 11
219104
22017, 22, 65, 97, 32, 26
22128
22283, 100, 101, 111, 105
22329, 30, 42, 51, 44, 94, 95
22487
22512
22682
2278
22818, 20, 57, 108
229109, 119
23034, 70, 130, 53, 121
23163
23298, 120
23389
23490
23556, 117
23671, 106
23785
238103
23974
24096
24176, 123, 133
24281, 86
24315
244112
24538
24679
24739, 127, 129, 55, 60
24816, 37, 50
249116
25066
For additional information or clarification, please contact Dr. J. Terhune, Dept. of Biology, University of New Brunswick, P.O. Box 5050, Saint John, NB, Canada  E2L 4L5, terhune@unbsj.ca or +1 506 648 5633.
See the link below for public details on this project.

Tags: AMD, AMD/AU, ANTARCTICA, CALL DURATION, CALL NUMBER, CALL SHAPE, CALL TYPE, CASSETTE, CEOS, CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA, DATE, DURATION BETWEEN SEQUENTIAL CALLS, EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES, EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > MAMMALS, ELEMENT DURATION, ELEMENT NUMBER, FREQUENCY, GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR, INTERVAL DURATION, LARESMANN HILLS, LEPTONYCHOTES WEDDELLII, LOCATION, NUMBER OF ELEMENTS, OVERLAP, SOUTHERN OCEAN, UNDERWATER VOCALISATIONS, VESTFOLD HILLS, WAVEFORM, YEAR
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network