PECULIARITIES OF ACOUSTIC EXCHANGE BETWEEN A FEMALE AND A CALF OF THE BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN (TURSIOPS TRUNCATUS) IN STRESS SITUATION

The dynamics of acoustic exchange between a female of bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and her calf under stressful conditions was studied. Both animals produced primarily their individually specific "signature whistles". At the first stage of adaptation, the calf couldn't coordinate production of these signals with those of the female. This resulted in the use of burst-pulse sounds by the female with the time overlapping on the calfs' signature whistles. The two-way exchange with coordination of signature whistles production recovered about an hour after the beginning of the stress situation. The comparison with our earlier results on adult bottlenose dolphins indicates that the acoustic exchange between dolphins under stress conditions varies from one-way production of signals to the highly-coordinated exchange in "acoustic-bridge" mode depending on the social status and general adaptation level of the animals.