Bottlenose Dolphin Whistle Geographic Variation in the Caribbean

Coastal bottlenose dolphins in the Caribbean live in small and relatively isolated populations that overlap with a number of human activities. Here we present preliminary results on factors driving whistle acoustic structure variation across coastal dolphin populations in four Central American countries. Previous research has shown that in some of these countries dolphin-watching activities are high and their associated boat-noise can significantly influence dolphin whistle frequency, duration, and modulation. Data was collected using autonomous underwater recorders to minimize the impact of the research boat. Understanding the impact of human noise and other potential environmental factors in dolphin communications is key in developing conservation strategies. These populations are geographically isolated and show low genetic variation and are therefore at a higher risk of local extinction