In a context of foraging behaviour on the same feeding ground, mixed (male-female) dyads were found to emit more pulsed burst sounds during the mating season. The results demonstrate that changes in the social-signal production in bottlenose dolphins are related to the sex of the partner, mating season and social affiliation between the components of the dyad. The study presented here examined variations in the rate at which free-ranging dyads of bottlenose dolphins emit social-signals in an effort to better understand the relationship between vocal communication and social context. Context dependence and seasonality in vocalizations are present in the communication of many species, although very little research has addressed this dependence in marine mammals. Parametric approaches can complement traditional methods for animal behaviour and facilitate research replication.ДЄ fundamental question in animal behaviour is the role of vocal communication in the regulation of social interactions in species that organise themselves into social groups. Activity intensity of senders and receivers changed with specific call parameters, matching our predictions and illustrating the value of our approach to test communicative roles of acoustic parameter changes. We used high-resolution tag data to parameterize dolphin sounds and motion, and we applied continuously sampled parameters to examine how individual dolphins responded to conspecificsвЂ™ signals and moved while producing sounds. Through case studies of bottlenose dolphin social interactions, we present here a novel tag-based complementary approach. In the field of acoustic communication, researchers typically classify vocalizations and examine usage of call categories. Today, technologies such as animal-attached tags enable novel approaches, facilitating the use of quantitative metrics to characterize behaviour. Studies of animal behaviour have traditionally relied on classification of behavioural patterns and analyses of discrete behavioural categories. Our case studies illustrate the value of this approach to investigate communicative roles of acoustic parameter changes. Tags offer opportunities to study animal behaviour through analyses of continuously sampled quantitative parameters, which can complement traditional methods and facilitate research replication. We show that (1) VeDBA of one female during consortships had a negative relationship with centroid frequency of male calls, matching predictions about agonistic interactions based on motivation-structural rules (2) VeDBA of four males had a positive relationship with modulation rate of their pulsed vocalizations, confirming predictions that click-repetition rate of these calls increases with agonism intensity. Using data from sound-and-movement recording tags deployed in Sarasota (FL), we parameterized dolphin vocalizations and motion to investigate how senders and receivers modified movement parameters (including vectorial dynamic body acceleration, вЂњVeDBAвЂќ, a proxy for activity intensity) as a function of signal parameters. Here, we present this approach through case studies on wild common bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops truncatus ). Animal-attached tags can continuously sample high-resolution behavioural data on sounds and movements, which enables testing how acoustic parameters of signals relate to parameters of animal motion. However, acoustic parameters can also convey information independent of call type, offering complementary study approaches to call classifications.

Many studies of acoustic communication record sequences of animal sounds, classify vocalizations, and then examine how call categories are used relative to behavioural states and events. Stemming from the traditional use of field observers to score states and events, the study of animal behaviour often relies on analyses of discrete behavioural categories.

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