The Communication Systems of Cetaceans
- Louis M. Herman and William N. Tavolga
- Copyright 1980 John Wiley and Sons
The cetacean group radiated widely during its evolution, and species
currently occupy most of the available aquatic subzones. While many
general adaptations for communication appear across the different
species, there are also divergent trends reflecting specializations
for a particular ecological substrate or for a particular form of
social living. This chapter reviews these adaptations and discusses
the forms of cetacean communication and their social and ecological
correlates, so far as current information allows. The relation of
cetacean communication to data and concepts on communication in
other taxa is also considered when practicable.
The Communication systems of the cetaceans are analyzed as a set
of component mechanisms and processes, stretching from the production
of information transmission in the sea, and the use of these channels
by different species or groups of species is reviewed and compared.
Where inferences are possible, the functions of communication are
discussed and the complexity of communication evaluated.
The study of cetacean communication has all too often focused on
only limited aspects of the communication process or been pointed
toward narrow issues. Rarely has the intermesh of species, society,
ecology, and communication been considered (but see W. Evans and
Bastian, 1969). It is hoped that the material in this chapter and
its discussion will contribute toward a broader image of cetacean
communication, its functions, and its determining variables.
Herman, L. M. and Tavolga, W. N. (1980). The communication systems
of cetaceans. In L. M. Herman (Ed.), Cetacean behavior: Mechanisms
and functions, 149-209. New York: Wiley Interscience.
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