Sound localization of aerial broadband noise in pinnipeds

Abstract

Pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses) emit broadband calls on land as part of their communication system in order to coordinate their reproductive activities. How well do they localize these types of signals? In this study, the aerial sound localization acuities of a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), a California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), and a northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) were measured in the horizontal plane with a broadband white noise stimulus. Testing was conducted in a hemi-anechoic chamber using a left/right forced choice procedure to measure the minimum audible angle (MAA) for each subject. MAAs were defined as half the angular separation of two sound sources relative to a subject’s midline that corresponded to 75% correct discrimination. MAAs were 3.6, 4.2, and 4.7 deg for the harbor seal, California sea lion, and northern elephant seal, respectively. These results demonstrate that these pinniped species had sound localization abilities comparable to the domestic cat and rhesus macaques. The acuity differences between our subjects were small, were not predicted by head size, and therefore likely reflect the relatively acute abilities of other pinniped species to localize aerial broadband signals.