Variation in the emission rates of striped dolphin's vocalizations recorded in the Gulf of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea, Central Mediterranean Sea)

Despite significant research effort in the past decade was done to better understand the effect of noise on cetaceans, remarkable gaps still remain, especially in understanding the patterns of the vocalizations emitted in different behavioural contexts. This study focused on the bioacoustics of the striped dolphin in the Gulf of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea, Central Mediterranean Sea) in order to understand possible differences in emission rate of whistles, clicks, burst pulses and buzzes depending on the behavioural and size of groups observed. Results demonstrated that both the behavioural context and the group size affect the vocalizations emission rate although with effects that are not always generalizable. However, studies on this issue should be strongly encouraged to disentangle the effect of anthropogenic noise on cetaceans.