Diving behaviour of the sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus , off the Galapagos Islands
Sperm whales, Physeter macrocephalus, were tracked by means of a recording depth sounder in the waters off the Galapagos Islands. At depths of less than 300 m the whales generally dived nearly vertically at 60–100 m/min. At greater depths their descents were usually slower. Between February and Apri...
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Language: | English |
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Canadian Science Publishing
1989
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crcansciencepubl:10.1139/z89-124 2024-03-03T08:47:58+00:00 Diving behaviour of the sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus , off the Galapagos Islands Papastavrou, Vassili Smith, Sean C. Whitehead, Hal 1989 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z89-124 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z89-124 en eng Canadian Science Publishing http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 67, issue 4, page 839-846 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 1989 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/z89-124 2024-02-07T10:53:35Z Sperm whales, Physeter macrocephalus, were tracked by means of a recording depth sounder in the waters off the Galapagos Islands. At depths of less than 300 m the whales generally dived nearly vertically at 60–100 m/min. At greater depths their descents were usually slower. Between February and April 1985, they dived to about 420 m, which is approximately the depth of the oxygen minimum. In 1987, a year of warmer water temperatures, they usually dived about 70 m shallower. There was no apparent diurnal variation in dive depths. None of the whales tracked dived to the ocean floor. Whales dived for about 40 min, followed by 10 min at the surface. Sperm whales usually started to make regular clicks when 150–300 m deep. Young calves appeared not to make prolonged deep dives. Our results are generally consistent with other direct information on the diving behaviour of relatively undisturbed sperm whales, but often conflict with results obtained using sonar for sperm whales being chased by whale catchers. Article in Journal/Newspaper Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale Canadian Science Publishing Galapagos Canadian Journal of Zoology 67 4 839 846 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Canadian Science Publishing |
op_collection_id |
crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
spellingShingle |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Papastavrou, Vassili Smith, Sean C. Whitehead, Hal Diving behaviour of the sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus , off the Galapagos Islands |
topic_facet |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
Sperm whales, Physeter macrocephalus, were tracked by means of a recording depth sounder in the waters off the Galapagos Islands. At depths of less than 300 m the whales generally dived nearly vertically at 60–100 m/min. At greater depths their descents were usually slower. Between February and April 1985, they dived to about 420 m, which is approximately the depth of the oxygen minimum. In 1987, a year of warmer water temperatures, they usually dived about 70 m shallower. There was no apparent diurnal variation in dive depths. None of the whales tracked dived to the ocean floor. Whales dived for about 40 min, followed by 10 min at the surface. Sperm whales usually started to make regular clicks when 150–300 m deep. Young calves appeared not to make prolonged deep dives. Our results are generally consistent with other direct information on the diving behaviour of relatively undisturbed sperm whales, but often conflict with results obtained using sonar for sperm whales being chased by whale catchers. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Papastavrou, Vassili Smith, Sean C. Whitehead, Hal |
author_facet |
Papastavrou, Vassili Smith, Sean C. Whitehead, Hal |
author_sort |
Papastavrou, Vassili |
title |
Diving behaviour of the sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus , off the Galapagos Islands |
title_short |
Diving behaviour of the sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus , off the Galapagos Islands |
title_full |
Diving behaviour of the sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus , off the Galapagos Islands |
title_fullStr |
Diving behaviour of the sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus , off the Galapagos Islands |
title_full_unstemmed |
Diving behaviour of the sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus , off the Galapagos Islands |
title_sort |
diving behaviour of the sperm whale, physeter macrocephalus , off the galapagos islands |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
1989 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z89-124 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z89-124 |
geographic |
Galapagos |
geographic_facet |
Galapagos |
genre |
Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
genre_facet |
Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
op_source |
Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 67, issue 4, page 839-846 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 |
op_rights |
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/z89-124 |
container_title |
Canadian Journal of Zoology |
container_volume |
67 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
839 |
op_container_end_page |
846 |
_version_ |
1792504291512025088 |