Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:51:25 BST CiteULike: soramame_0518's dolphin http://www.citeulike.org/user/soramame_0518/tag/dolphin CiteULike.org en-gb Copyright © 2004-2008 citeulike.org http://www.citeulike.org/user/soramame_0518/article/2774815 <i>EPL (Europhysics Letters), Vol. 74, No. 6. (2006), pp. 1095-1101.</i><br /><br />Here we study the sequences of surface behavioral patterns of dolphins (Tursiops sp.) and find long-term correlations. We show that the long-term correlations are not of a trivial nature, i.e. they cannot be explained by the repetition of the same surface behavior many times in a row. Our findings suggest that dolphins have a long collective memory extending back at least to the 7-th past behavior. As far as we know, this is the first evidence of long-term correlations in the behavior of a non-human species. Long-term correlations in the surface behavior of dolphins Cancho D Lusseau doi:10.1209/epl/i2005-10596-9 EPL (Europhysics Letters), Vol. 74, No. 6. (2006), pp. 1095-1101. 2008-05-09T08:52:39-00:00 2006 EPL (Europhysics Letters) 74 6 1095 1101 dolphin long_term_correlation http://www.citeulike.org/user/soramame_0518/article/1074129 <i>Anim Behav, Vol. 57, No. 2. (February 1999), pp. 409-419.</i><br /><br />Comparative analysis of nonhuman animal communication systems and their complexity, particularly in comparison to human language, has been generally hampered by both a lack of sufficiently extensive data sets and appropriate analytic tools. Information theory measures provide an important quantitative tool for examining and comparing communication systems across species. In this paper we use the original application of information theory, that of statistical examination of a communication system's structure and organization. As an example of the utility of information theory to the analysis of animal communication systems, we applied a series of information theory statistics to a statistically categorized set of bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus, whistle vocalizations. First, we use the first-order entropic relation in a Zipf-type diagram (Zipf 1949 Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort) to illustrate the application of temporal statistics as comparative indicators of repertoire complexity, and as possible predictive indicators of acquisition/learning in animal vocal repertoires. Second, we illustrate the need for more extensive temporal data sets when examining the higher entropic orders, indicative of higher levels of internal informational structure, of such vocalizations, which could begin to allow the statistical reconstruction of repertoire organization. Third, we propose using 'communication capacity' as a measure of the degree of temporal structure and complexity of statistical correlation, represented by the values of entropic order, as an objective tool for interspecies comparison of communication complexity. In doing so, we introduce a new comparative measure, the slope of Shannon entropies, and illustrate how it potentially can be used to compare the organizational complexity of vocal repertoires across a diversity of species. Finally, we illustrate the nature and predictive application of these higher-order entropies using a preliminary sample of dolphin whistle vocalizations. The purpose of this preliminary report is to re-examine the original application of information theory to the field of animal communication, illustrate its potential utility as a comparative tool for examining the internal informational structure of animal vocal repertoires and their development, and discuss its relationship to behavioural ecology and evolutionary theory. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Quantitative tools for comparing animal communication systems: information theory applied to bottlenose dolphin whistle repertoires. B McCOWAN SF Hanser LR Doyle doi:10.1006/anbe.1998.1000 Anim Behav, Vol. 57, No. 2. (February 1999), pp. 409-419. 2007-01-29T10:55:21-00:00 1999 Anim Behav 0003-3472 57 2 409 419 dolphin information low theory whistle zipfs