Response to: The metabolic cost of whistling is low but measurable in dolphins
Costs of sound production have been investigated only sparsely in cetaceans, despite recent efforts to understand how increasing anthropogenic noise affects these animals that rely extensively on sound for communication and foraging. Theoretical estimates suggest that metabolic costs of whistling
Whistling is metabolically cheap for communicating bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)
Toothed whales depend on sound for communication and foraging, making them potentially vulnerable to acoustic masking from increasing anthropogenic noise. Masking effects may be ameliorated by higher amplitudes or rates of calling, but such acoustic compensation mechanisms may incur energetic costs if sound production is expensive. The costs of whistling in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) have been reported to be much higher (20-50% of resting metabolic rate, RMR) than theoretical predictions (0.5-1% of RMR). Here we address this dichotomy by measuring the change in the resting O2 consumption rate (V̇O2), a proxy for RMR, in three post-absorptive bottlenose dolphins during whistlin…