What causes the sound of a seal barking?

Introduction

The sound of a seal barking is a fascinating aspect of their vocal behavior, often influenced by various environmental and situational factors. Understanding the causes behind these vocalizations can provide insights into their communication, behavior, and responses to external stimuli.

Key Insights

Environmental Factors and Vocalization Patterns:
- Seal vocalizations, including barking, are more frequent during lighter hours and are negatively correlated with windspeed and ambient temperature.
Response to Man-Made Noise:
- Ringed seals' vocalizations, including barking, were not significantly affected by the introduction of underwater man-made noise, although there was a long-term increase in vocalizations, possibly due to heightened breeding activity.
- Australian fur seals exhibited changes in their vocal behavior in response to motor boat noise, with barks becoming faster as the noise level increased. This suggests that higher noise levels cause behavioral disturbances and changes in vocal patterns.

Conclusion

Seal barking is influenced by environmental conditions such as light levels, windspeed, and temperature. Additionally, while some seals show resilience to certain man-made noises, others, like the Australian fur seals, alter their vocal behavior in response to increased noise levels. Understanding these factors is crucial for managing human activities around seal habitats to minimize disturbances.

What causes the sound of a seal barking?

Summary

Introduction

Key Insights

Conclusion

Sources and full results

Acoustical behavior of ringed seals in the presence of man‐made noise

Ringed seals produce more underwater sounds in the presence of man-made noise, but this increase is likely due to heightened breathing difficulty.

The Behavioural Response of Australian Fur Seals to Motor Boat Noise

Australian fur seals show behavioral disturbance to high-level boat noise, indicating that an appropriate sound level for breeding colonies should be below 74 dB.

Tolerance by ringed seals (Phoca hispida) to impact pipe-driving and construction sounds at an oil production island.

Ringed seals around Northstar Island, Alaska, show little or no reaction to industrial noise, suggesting they are likely habituated to these sounds.

Some hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) sounds in March

Hooded seals make various underwater and in-air sounds, with all vocalizations being variations on a low-frequency, pulsed call.

High-amplitude vocalizations of male northern elephant seals and associated ambient noise on a breeding rookery.

Male northern elephant seals emit high-amplitude airborne calls during breeding season to convey individual identity within noisy breeding colonies, rather than as honest indicators of size, status, or motivation.

Characterization of Australian fur seal vocalizations during the breeding season

Australian fur seals produce six distinct call types during breeding season, with male bark calls varying in speed depending on their context and female attraction calls varying by age and sex class.

Vocalizations and vocal mimicry in captive harbor seals, Phoca vitulina

Captive harbor seals can produce speechlike sounds, with males showing the most vocalization and mimicking English words and phrases, suggesting potential for vocal learning in mammals.

Hearing thresholds, for underwater sounds, of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) at the water surface.

Harbor seals' hearing thresholds for underwater sounds at the water surface are similar to those at depth, suggesting that swimming at the surface may not reduce their exposure to underwater sounds.

Vocalization in the Ringed Seal (Phoca hispida)

Ringed seals emit vocalizations under water, including high- and low-pitched barks, yelps, and chirps, that likely facilitate communication and social organization.

Scaring seals by sound

No sound consistently effective in scaring seals from salmon netting stations, making the prospect of an acoustic deterrent remote.

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