Meeting Abstract
Alligator mississippiensis vocalizations and sound localization are thought to be important for maternal care and group cohesion in young animals (Hunt and Watanabe 1982), and neurophysiological and acoustical studies have demonstrated that these animals are capable of sound localization (Carr et al. 2009; Bierman et al. 2014). Behavioral evidence of localization is, however, lacking. We therefore used psychophysical techniques to determine if juvenile A. mississippiensis could localize sound in the laboratory. We trained and tested the alligators in a large tank with speakers and food sources placed on opposite sides. The alligators learned an association between a 1,000Hz tone with a food reward at the tone source. Super-threshold tones were played at random, sparse intervals to prevent habituation to the sound. Every tone represented a trial. Responses were scored if they occurred within 3 seconds of the offset of the tone. Consistently, across animals, trials, and speakers, most movements were towards the side of the tank with the speaker playing the tone.
