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First published online August 18, 2005
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 3385-3394 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01786

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Spatial orientation in echolocating harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena)

Ursula K. Verfuß^1,2,*, Lee A. Miller³ and Hans-Ulrich Schnitzler²

¹ Fjord & Bælt, Margretes Plads 1, DK-5300 Kerteminde, Denmark
² Tierphysiologie, Zoologisches Institut, Universität Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany
³ Institute of Biology, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5230 Odense M, Denmark

^* Author for correspondence at present address: German Oceanographic Museum, Katharinenberg 14/20, 18439 Stralsund, Germany (e-mail: ursula.verfuss{at}meeresmuseum.de)

Accepted 6 July 2005

Studies concerning the echolocation behaviour of odontocetes focus mainly on target detection and discrimination, either in stationary animals or in animals approaching a specific target. We present the first data on the use of echolocation for spatial orientation or navigation. Synchronised video and high-frequency recordings were made of two harbour porpoises trained to swim from one position to another across an outdoor pool in order to correlate swimming and echolocation behaviour. Both porpoises showed a clear range-locking behaviour on specific positions near the end of the pool, as indicated by a decrease in click interval with decreasing distance. The decrease in click interval followed the two-way-transit time, which is the time interval between the outgoing click and the received echo from the focal object. This suggests that the porpoises used focal objects as landmarks. The lag time, defined as the time between the arrival of an echo from a landmark and the emission of the next click, was task specific. The lag time was longer for difficult tasks (26–36 ms) and shorter for simpler tasks (14–19 ms), with some individual differences between the two animals. Our results suggest that echolocation by odontocetes is used not only for target detection, localisation and classification but also for spatial orientation.

Key words: harbour porpoise, Phocoena phocoena, biosonar, echolocation, echolocation behaviour, signal pattern, spatial orientation, landmark

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