Sphere-Cylinder Discrimination Via Echolocation by Tursiops truncatus

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the ability of T. truncatus to discriminate between spherical and cylindrical targets by echolocation. The targets were constructed out of polyurethane foam to eliminate any internal reflections, and their dimensions were chosen so that the spheres and cylinders had overlapping target strengths. All targets were acoustically examined with dolphin-like echolocation signals. The results of the acoustic measurements performed under free-field conditions are shown in Table 1, along with the correlation coefficients between the echoes.