Relationship between roar sound characteristics and body size of Steller sea lion

Abstract

Hundreds of Steller sea lions, Eumetopias jubatus, migrate from Sakhalin and the northern Kuril Islands to Hokkaido every winter. During this migration, they may use their roaring sounds to navigate and to maintain their groups. We recorded the roars of wild Steller sea lions that had landed on reefs on the west coast of Hokkaido, and those of captive sea lions, while making video recordings. A total of 300 roars of wild sea lions and 870 roars of captive sea lions were sampled. The fundamental frequency (F0), formant frequency (F1), pulse repetition rate (PRR), and duration of syllables (T) were analyzed using a sonagraph. F0, F1, and PRR of the roars emitted by captive sea lions increased in the order male, female, and juvenile. By contrast, the F1 of wild males was lower than that of females, while the F0 and PRR of wild males and females did not differ statistically. Moreover, the F0 and F1 frequencies for captive sea lions were higher than those of wild sea lions, while PRR in captive sea lions was lower than in wild sea lions. Since there was a linear relationship between body length and the F0 and F1 frequencies in captive sea lions, the body length distribution of wild sea lions could be estimated from the F0 and F1 frequency distribution using a regression equation. These results roughly agree with the body length distribution derived from photographic geometry. As the volume of the oral cavity and the length of the vocal cords are generally proportional to body length, sampled roars can provide useful information about a population, such as the body length distribution and sex ratio.