Wave propagation in the biosonar organ of sperm whales using a finite difference time domain method
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biophysics, Marine Biology, Computational Science
- Keywords
- Sperm whale, Sonar, FDTD, wave, Simulation
- Copyright
- © 2019 Ferrari et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2019. Wave propagation in the biosonar organ of sperm whales using a finite difference time domain method. PeerJ Preprints 7:e27995v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27995v1
Abstract
The bio-sonar of sperm whales presents many specific characteristics, such as its size, its loudness or its vocalization abilities. Furthermore it fulfills several roles in their foraging and social behaviour. However our knowledge about its operation remains limited to the main acoustic path that the emitted pulse may take. We still ignore the precise mechanisms that shape the wave and on which parts the sperm whale is able to act. In this paper, we describe a technique to simulate sperm whale click generation from a physical perspective. Such an approach aims at unveiling the processes involved in their vocal production, as a stepping stone towards a better understanding of their interaction with peers and the environment.
Author Comment
This is a preprint submission for the second international workshop on Vocal Interactivity in-and-between Humans, Animals and Robots (VIHAR 2019) collection.