Mechanisms by which dolphins identify target movement characteristics and their technical use in hydrolocation and radiolocation.

The ability of the localizing system of the dolphin Tursiops truncatus to discriminate the dynamic characteristics of an object being located (a radially moving target) was studied. Measurements were made of the thresholds of the animals' sensitivity to the target speed (2.6 cm/sec) and acceleration (0.6 cm/sec(2)). For location of a target moving at constant speed, dolphins were found to use probe signals consisting of two impulses, while accelerating targets were located using probe signals consisting of three impulses. These characteristics were used to propose new and highly effective technical methods for hydrolocation and radiolocation.