Seals and Sea Lions Get Hearing Tested at Australia Zoo
The study found the animals were most sensitive around 3.2 kilohertz, a baseline researchers say can guide noise impact assessments.
- On Thursday, Curtin University researchers and keepers at Taronga Zoo trained seals and sea lions to respond to hearing tests by pressing a paddle when they detected tones, rewarding correct responses with fish.
- Lead researcher Christine Erbe stated that establishing baseline hearing capabilities is essential to understand how noise from ships, aircraft, and coastal construction affects seals and sea lions.
- The study found pinnipeds were most sensitive to sounds around 3.2 kilohertz, providing critical data for the endangered Australian sea lion population of about 12,000 animals that rely on hearing for communication and navigation.
- Taronga Conservation Society Australia Behavioural Biologist Benjamin Pitcher said the findings could help inform environmental impact assessments and noise management as shipping, coastal development, and offshore industries expand.
- Scientists now plan to investigate how noise affects the animals underwater and when it begins to interfere with their natural behaviour, communication, and ability to detect threats.
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A team of researchers in Australia has developed sea lions and seals for hearing testing as part of research on how marine mammals are affected by human noise.
In the oceans, ship engines, oil drilling and construction work are making more and more noise. How the animals deal with it? A research project at Sydney Zoo is approaching the answer.
Australian scientists have trained sea lions and seals to respond with hearing tests to study how these marine mammals are affected by human-induced noise.
Seals and sea lions get hearing tested at Australia zoo
Keepers at Sydney's Taronga Zoo trained two sea lions and two fur seals to listen to sounds and press a paddle when they heard a tone. They were rewarded with fish for the right answers. "Before we can understand whether a noise is affecting an animal, we need to know whether it can hear that noise in the first place," Curtin University professor and lead researcher Christine Erbe said on Thursday. "These hearing tests give us that baseline and …
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