Species

Common bottlenose dolphin

The clearest illustration of honest capture limits: without a hydrophone the primary communication channel is simply not observed, and the product says so.

Tursiops truncatusDo not approachleast concerncetacean-adapter

Wild species

• Do not swim with, chase, feed or attempt to touch wild dolphins. This is illegal in most jurisdictions.
• Keep vessels at the legally required distance and never position a boat in the path of a travelling group.
• Never play recorded whistles. Acoustic playback disturbs wild cetaceans and is prohibited in this product.

Acoustic profile

What a recording device must capture.

Fundamental frequency

800–30000 Hz

Meaningful spectrum

200 Hz – 150.0 kHz

Recommended sample rate

192.0 kHz

Individual profiles

Supported

Capture note

Whistles extend past 20 kHz and echolocation clicks past 100 kHz. No phone or camera microphone can record this, and air microphones cannot record underwater sound at all. A calibrated hydrophone at 192 kHz or higher is required; without one, only surface behaviour is analysed and the audio modality is reported as absent.

Signature signals

What an experienced observer looks for in this species.

Signature whistle
audio
Individually distinctive whistle functioning as a name-like label. Requires a hydrophone.
Synchronous surfacing
video
Tightly matched breathing intervals indicating affiliation.
Peduncle throw
video
High-arousal aggressive or play display.

Behaviours

Categories the engine may report — and the ones it must never report for this species.

Supported

Social contactGroup coordinationParent–offspring communicationPlay initiationCuriosityHunting or prey focusAlarmFearRestMating or courtshipDominance displayPossible pain or discomfortInsufficient evidence

Excluded for this species

Territorial behaviourAttention seekingSeparation distressWater-related behaviourSubmission

Excluded categories are removed before ranking, so they can never win on a superficial signal match.

Taxonomy

kingdom: Animalia
phylum: Chordata
class: Mammalia
order: Artiodactyla
family: Delphinidae
genus: Tursiops
species: Tursiops truncatus

Body-language channels

Only these are weighed for this species.

PostureGaitFlipperSurfacing patternGaze

Limitations

• Consumer hardware cannot record the primary acoustic channel; audio is normally absent from these observations.
• Surface behaviour is a small and biased sample of the behavioural repertoire.

Species adapter

Adapter

cetacean-adapter@0.1.0

Provenance

Priors derived from published Tursiops signature-whistle and surface-behaviour literature.

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