Auditory sensitivity and masking profiles for the sea otter (Enhydra lutris)
Ghoul, A.; Reichmuth, C. (2016). Auditory sensitivity and masking profiles for the sea otter (Enhydra lutris), in: Popper, A.N. et al. The effects of noise on aquatic life II. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 875: pp. 349-354. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2981-8_41 In: Popper, A.N.; Hawkins, A. (Ed.) (2016). The effects of noise on aquatic life II. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 875. Springer Science+Business Media, Inc: New York. ISBN 978-1-4939-2980-1. xxx, 1292 pp., more In: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. Springer: Berlin. ISSN 0065-2598; e-ISSN 2214-8019, more | |
Keywords | Hearing Masking Noise Enhydra lutris (Linnaeus, 1758) [WoRMS] Marine/Coastal | Author keywords | |
Abstract | Sea otters are threatened marine mammals that may be negatively impacted by human-generated coastal noise, yet information about sound reception in this species is surprisingly scarce. We investigated amphibious hearing in sea otters by obtaining the first measurements of absolute sensitivity and critical masking ratios. Auditory thresholds were measured in air and underwater from 0.125 to 40 kHz. Critical ratios derived from aerial masked thresholds from 0.25 to 22.6 kHz were also obtained. These data indicate that although sea otters can detect underwater sounds, their hearing appears to be primarily air adapted and not specialized for detecting signals in background noise. |
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