The potential of passive acoustic monitoring for the study of ecological interactions among freshwater Amazonian dolphins and fishes

Abstract

The acoustic behavior of Amazonian aquatic fauna and the importance of its soundscape are poorly understood. Sounds produced by wild river dolphins (Amazon River dolphin, Inia geoffrensis, and tucuxi, Sotalia fluviatilis) and those of unidentified fishes were recorded from a drifting boat on six different days (8.5 h duration) in July 2012, in the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve of Peru. Unidentified sounds of fishes were dominated by four broad types: pulsed stridulation, long stridulation, long pulse, and short pulse. Dominant sounds produced by dolphins included echolocation click trains, burst-pulses, whistles, and bubble bursts. Soniferous activity was quantified as total sound duration per 10 s of recording and compared between dolphins and fishes for each sound type and all types combined. Soniferous activity was highly variable among days, with echolocation click trains (7.7 s min-1) and pulsed stridulation (0.33 s min-1) being the dominant components. Soniferous activity of the dolphins and fishes was correlated (Spearman r = 0.49, P < 0.001). However, whether the correlation resulted from predator-prey interactions or other spatial factors could not be determined. Although preliminary in nature, this study is the first examination of the soniferous activity of both river dolphins and fishes in the Amazon and suggests passive acoustic monitoring has the potential to provide unique insight into ecological interactions in the system.