Page 46 - Spring2019

Patrick Moore
Address:
Bioacoustics National Marine Mammal Foundation San Diego, California 92152 USA
Email:
Patrick.Moore@nmmf.org
Arthur N. Popper
Address:
Department of Biology University of Maryland College Park, Maryland 20742 USA
Email:
apopper@umd.edu
Heptuna’s Contributions to Biosonar
The dolphin Heptuna participated in over 30 studies that helped define what is known about biosonar.
It is not often that it can be said that an animal has a research career that spans four decades or has been a major contributor (and subject) in more than 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals (including many in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America). However, one animal that accomplished this was a remarkable bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) by the name of Heptuna (Figure 1). Indeed, consider- ing the quality of Heptuna’s “publications,” we contend that were he human and a faculty member at a university, he would easily have been promoted to full profes- sor many years ago.
Figure 1. Heptuna during sound localization studies of Renaud and Popper, ca. 1972.
Heptuna passed away in August 2010 after a career of 40 years in the US Navy. Because Hep- tuna had such a long and fascinating career and contributed to so much of what we know about marine mammal biosonar, we thought it would be of consider- able interest to show the range of studies in which he participated. Both of the current au-
thors, at one time or another, worked with Heptuna and, like everyone else who worked with the animal, found him to be a bright and effective research subject and, indeed, “collaborator.” At the same time, we want to point out that Heptuna, although an exceptional animal, was not unique in having a long and very produc- tive research career; however, he is the focus of this article because both authors worked him and, in many ways, he was truly exceptional.
Early History
Heptuna was collected in midsummer 1970 off the west coast of Florida by US Navy personnel trained in dolphin collection. He was flown to the Marine Air Corps Sta- tion Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii that then housed a major US Navy dolphin research facility. At the time of collection, Heptuna was estimated to be about 6 years old, based on his length (close to 2.5 meters, 8 feet) and weight (102 kg, 225 lb). His name came from a multivitamin tablet that, at the time, was a supplement given to all the dolphins at the Naval Undersea Center (NUC).
https://doi.org/10.1121/AT.2019.15.1.46
44 | Acoustics Today | Spring 2019 | volume 15, issue 1 ©2019 Acoustical Society of America. All rights reserved.