Seasonal and diel patterns in singing activity of humpback whales migrating through Bermuda

Humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) produce song and non-song vocalisations, which allows their presence to be detected through passive acoustic monitoring. To determine the seasonal and diel acoustic presence and acoustic behaviour of humpback whales at the migratory stopover site off Bermud...

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Published in:Frontiers in Marine Science
Main Authors: Narganes Homfeldt, Tamara, Risch, Denise, Stevenson, Andrew, Henry, Lea-Anne
Other Authors: Horizon 2020
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Frontiers Media SA 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.941793
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.941793/full
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spelling crfrontiers:10.3389/fmars.2022.941793 2024-10-20T14:09:18+00:00 Seasonal and diel patterns in singing activity of humpback whales migrating through Bermuda Narganes Homfeldt, Tamara Risch, Denise Stevenson, Andrew Henry, Lea-Anne Horizon 2020 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.941793 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.941793/full unknown Frontiers Media SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Frontiers in Marine Science volume 9 ISSN 2296-7745 journal-article 2022 crfrontiers https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.941793 2024-09-24T04:03:58Z Humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) produce song and non-song vocalisations, which allows their presence to be detected through passive acoustic monitoring. To determine the seasonal and diel acoustic presence and acoustic behaviour of humpback whales at the migratory stopover site off Bermuda, three hydrophones were deployed between March 2018 and April 2019 on Challenger Bank and the Bermuda platform. Song was the predominant vocalisation type encountered, with 65% of song recordings containing whale chorus and a clear seasonal trend of humpback whale occurrence in the spring and winter months from late December to mid-May. A strong diel pattern in singing activity was detected. Singing activity significantly increased at night relative to the daytime (p<0.01), whilst twilight periods were characterised by intermediate levels of singing. The song structure encountered in spring 2018 consisted of 18 units, 6 themes and 5 transitional phrases. The high occurrence of whale chorus and the strong seasonal and diel patterns of male humpback whale singing activity highlights the importance of Bermuda not just on their northward migration during spring, as described historically, but also on their southward migration during winter. Bermuda therefore constitutes a two-way migratory stopover site for humpback whales. The present study also provides Bermuda’s planning authorities with better constraints on the duration and intensity of anthropogenic activities in these waters. Article in Journal/Newspaper Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae Frontiers (Publisher) Frontiers in Marine Science 9
institution Open Polar
collection Frontiers (Publisher)
op_collection_id crfrontiers
language unknown
description Humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) produce song and non-song vocalisations, which allows their presence to be detected through passive acoustic monitoring. To determine the seasonal and diel acoustic presence and acoustic behaviour of humpback whales at the migratory stopover site off Bermuda, three hydrophones were deployed between March 2018 and April 2019 on Challenger Bank and the Bermuda platform. Song was the predominant vocalisation type encountered, with 65% of song recordings containing whale chorus and a clear seasonal trend of humpback whale occurrence in the spring and winter months from late December to mid-May. A strong diel pattern in singing activity was detected. Singing activity significantly increased at night relative to the daytime (p<0.01), whilst twilight periods were characterised by intermediate levels of singing. The song structure encountered in spring 2018 consisted of 18 units, 6 themes and 5 transitional phrases. The high occurrence of whale chorus and the strong seasonal and diel patterns of male humpback whale singing activity highlights the importance of Bermuda not just on their northward migration during spring, as described historically, but also on their southward migration during winter. Bermuda therefore constitutes a two-way migratory stopover site for humpback whales. The present study also provides Bermuda’s planning authorities with better constraints on the duration and intensity of anthropogenic activities in these waters.
author2 Horizon 2020
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Narganes Homfeldt, Tamara
Risch, Denise
Stevenson, Andrew
Henry, Lea-Anne
spellingShingle Narganes Homfeldt, Tamara
Risch, Denise
Stevenson, Andrew
Henry, Lea-Anne
Seasonal and diel patterns in singing activity of humpback whales migrating through Bermuda
author_facet Narganes Homfeldt, Tamara
Risch, Denise
Stevenson, Andrew
Henry, Lea-Anne
author_sort Narganes Homfeldt, Tamara
title Seasonal and diel patterns in singing activity of humpback whales migrating through Bermuda
title_short Seasonal and diel patterns in singing activity of humpback whales migrating through Bermuda
title_full Seasonal and diel patterns in singing activity of humpback whales migrating through Bermuda
title_fullStr Seasonal and diel patterns in singing activity of humpback whales migrating through Bermuda
title_full_unstemmed Seasonal and diel patterns in singing activity of humpback whales migrating through Bermuda
title_sort seasonal and diel patterns in singing activity of humpback whales migrating through bermuda
publisher Frontiers Media SA
publishDate 2022
url http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.941793
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.941793/full
genre Humpback Whale
Megaptera novaeangliae
genre_facet Humpback Whale
Megaptera novaeangliae
op_source Frontiers in Marine Science
volume 9
ISSN 2296-7745
op_rights https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
op_doi https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.941793
container_title Frontiers in Marine Science
container_volume 9
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