Meeting Abstract
Staffing at the United States Embassy in Cuba was greatly reduced following a potential “sonic attack” on U.S. personnel. The sound linked to these attacks was recorded by U.S. personnel and released by the Associated Press (AP). The call of the Indies short-tailed cricket (Anurogryllus celerinictus) matches the recording in duration, pulse repetition rate, power spectrum, and pulse rate stability yet the temporal pulse structure in the recording is unlike any natural insect source. When the cricket call is played on a loudspeaker and recorded indoors, the interaction of reflected sound pulses yields a recording virtually indistinguishable from the AP sample. This provides strong evidence that a cricket rather than a “sonic attack” or other technological device is responsible for the sound in the released recording.
