Paul Nachtigall

PhD University of Hawai'i (Psychology), 1976

Director, Marine Mammal Research Program, Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology

Marine Mammal Research Program

Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology

P.O. Box 1106

Kailua, HI 96734

nachtiga@hawaii.edu

www.soest.hawaii.edu/HIMB/Faculty/nachtigall.html

Cetacean sensory and perceptual processes

[publications] [graduate students] My research interests focus on the sensory and perceptual processes of dolphins and small whales. Past research has focused on taste reception, vision, hearing and echolocation of the three species that we currently have available: bottle nosed dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), Risso's dolphins (Grampus griseus), and false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens). Currently conducting research on hearing (auditory filter shapes, sound localization, low frequency audiometrics), echolocation (determining acoustic processes of echolocation via phantom echo experiments, basic capability of Risso's dolphin, effects of noise on dolphins, modeling discrimination abilities, evoked auditory potential measurements as a way to study hearing in large whales), and may be conducting future studies on vision and taste reception.

Representative publications

Nachtigall PE, Lemonds DW, Roitblat HL. (In Press) Psychoacoustic studies of whale and dolphin hearing. In: Au WWL, Popper AN, Fay RJ, editors. Hearing By Whales. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Read AJ, Wiepkema PR, Nachtigall PE. 1997. The Biology of the Harbor Porpoise. The Netherlands: DeSpil. 409 pp.

Au WWL, Nachtigall PE, Pawloski JL. 1997. Acoustic efffects of the ATOC signal (75 Hz, 195 dB) on dolphins and whales. J Acoustical Soc Am 101:2973-2977.

Nachtigall PE, Au WWL, Pawloski JL, Moore PWB. 1996. Risso's dolphin hearing thresholds in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. In: Kastelein RA, Thomas JA, Nachtigall PE, editors. Sensory Systems of Aquatic Mammals. The Netherlands: DeSpil.

Nachtigall PE, Lien J, Au WWL, Read AJ. 1995. Harbour Porpoises: Laboratory Studies to Reduce Bycatch. The Netherlands: DeSpil. 167 pp.

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Current students

Michelle Yuen (MS): sensory systems of marine mammals
Carrie DeLong (PhD, Psychology): Phantom echolocation in the bottlenosed dolphin
Jen Phillips (PhD, Psychology): Echolocation in Risso's dolphins

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Last update: 15 December 1999
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The University of Hawai`i is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Institution.