David Kastak
Long Marine Lab., 100 Shaffer Rd., Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Ronald J. Schusterman
California State Univ., Hayward, CA 94542
Studies on pure-tone detection thresholds were conducted on two female California sea lions and on a harbor seal. The older sea lion and the harbor seal were trained to wear custom-fitted headphones in order to determine minimum audible pressures in a binaural listening task. All three animals were trained to respond to underwater signals at frequencies ranging from 100--1600 Hz at a depth of about 1.5 m. Results were very reliable, owing to a combination of psychophysical threshold determining measures. Sensitivity to low-frequency sounds by both species were 25--30 dB better underwater than in air. The low-frequency hearing of the harbor seal was 2--25 dB better than the older seal lion. At 100 Hz, the sensitivity of the harbor seal was 17 dB superior to that of the younger seal ion, and 23 dB superior to the older seal lion. Results at low frequencies support the notion that the harbor seal (phocid) ear is more water adapted than the sea lion (otariid) ear.