Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the Local Population of Black Sea Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus ponticus Barabash, 1940): Visual and Acoustic Description Methods
Journal: Oceanology
Year: 2019

The local Sudak–Novyi Svet (Crimea) population of Black Sea bottlenose dolphins was studied. Observations and acoustic recordings were made throughout 2014 and 2015. This study is the first in Russia to use acoustic identification of individuals based on a “signature whistle” catalog in addition to visual identification. Bottlenose dolphin signatures consisted of tonal signals (whistles) with a frequency contour shape unique for each dolphin. These whistles predominated in the acoustic repertoir