Photo-identification and telemetry studies have reported limited instances in which Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) traversed the coastline of Florida. Manatee calls were recorded from four different locations in Florida. Using a single hydrophone, calls were recorded at two sites on the east coast and two sites on the west coast of Florida. These locations were representative of the four manatee management zones adopted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the United States Geological Service. These include the Northwest, Southwest, Atlantic and Upper St. John’s River regions. Seven hundred calls from each site were selected for analysis to further quantify call parameters and evaluate differences within and across geographical locations. Fundamental and dominant frequencies, call duration, number of harmonics, and the percentage of frequency modulation, were measured, in addition to the first and third quartile frequency, energy, interquartile bandwidths. Spectrograms and statistical differences in frequency modulated vocalizations (one-way anova, p 0.05). Correlation of spectrographic images suggests there is a high degree of similarity among categorized calls and calls seem to differ mostly in call contour.
| Date of Award | Dec 5 2011 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Edward O. Keith (Supervisor), Edmund Gerstein (Advisor) & Patrick Hardigan (Advisor) |
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