Songbird dynamics under the sea: acoustic interactions between humpback whales suggest song mediates male interactions
The function of song has been well studied in numerous taxa and plays a role in mediating both intersexual and intrasexual interactions. Humpback whales are among few mammals who sing, but the role of sexual selection on song in this species is poorly understood. While one predominant hypothesis is...
Published in: | Royal Society Open Science |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , |
Other Authors: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
The Royal Society
2018
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.171298 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.171298 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.171298 |
id |
crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsos.171298 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsos.171298 2024-06-23T07:53:36+00:00 Songbird dynamics under the sea: acoustic interactions between humpback whales suggest song mediates male interactions Cholewiak, Danielle M. Cerchio, Salvatore Jacobsen, Jeff K. Urbán-R., Jorge Clark, Christopher W. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology Bioacoustics Research Program 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.171298 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.171298 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.171298 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Royal Society Open Science volume 5, issue 2, page 171298 ISSN 2054-5703 journal-article 2018 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.171298 2024-06-04T06:23:01Z The function of song has been well studied in numerous taxa and plays a role in mediating both intersexual and intrasexual interactions. Humpback whales are among few mammals who sing, but the role of sexual selection on song in this species is poorly understood. While one predominant hypothesis is that song mediates male–male interactions, the mechanism by which this may occur has never been explored. We applied metrics typically used to assess songbird interactions to examine song sequences and movement patterns of humpback whale singers. We found that males altered their song presentation in the presence of other singers; focal males increased the rate at which they switched between phrase types ( p = 0.005), and tended to increase the overall evenness of their song presentation ( p = 0.06) after a second male began singing. Two-singer dyads overlapped their song sequences significantly more than expected by chance. Spatial analyses revealed that change in distance between singers was related to whether both males kept singing ( p = 0.012), with close approaches leading to song cessation. Overall, acoustic interactions resemble known mechanisms of mediating intrasexual interactions in songbirds. Future work should focus on more precisely resolving how changes in song presentation may be used in competition between singing males. Article in Journal/Newspaper Humpback Whale The Royal Society Royal Society Open Science 5 2 171298 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
The Royal Society |
op_collection_id |
crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
The function of song has been well studied in numerous taxa and plays a role in mediating both intersexual and intrasexual interactions. Humpback whales are among few mammals who sing, but the role of sexual selection on song in this species is poorly understood. While one predominant hypothesis is that song mediates male–male interactions, the mechanism by which this may occur has never been explored. We applied metrics typically used to assess songbird interactions to examine song sequences and movement patterns of humpback whale singers. We found that males altered their song presentation in the presence of other singers; focal males increased the rate at which they switched between phrase types ( p = 0.005), and tended to increase the overall evenness of their song presentation ( p = 0.06) after a second male began singing. Two-singer dyads overlapped their song sequences significantly more than expected by chance. Spatial analyses revealed that change in distance between singers was related to whether both males kept singing ( p = 0.012), with close approaches leading to song cessation. Overall, acoustic interactions resemble known mechanisms of mediating intrasexual interactions in songbirds. Future work should focus on more precisely resolving how changes in song presentation may be used in competition between singing males. |
author2 |
Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology Bioacoustics Research Program |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Cholewiak, Danielle M. Cerchio, Salvatore Jacobsen, Jeff K. Urbán-R., Jorge Clark, Christopher W. |
spellingShingle |
Cholewiak, Danielle M. Cerchio, Salvatore Jacobsen, Jeff K. Urbán-R., Jorge Clark, Christopher W. Songbird dynamics under the sea: acoustic interactions between humpback whales suggest song mediates male interactions |
author_facet |
Cholewiak, Danielle M. Cerchio, Salvatore Jacobsen, Jeff K. Urbán-R., Jorge Clark, Christopher W. |
author_sort |
Cholewiak, Danielle M. |
title |
Songbird dynamics under the sea: acoustic interactions between humpback whales suggest song mediates male interactions |
title_short |
Songbird dynamics under the sea: acoustic interactions between humpback whales suggest song mediates male interactions |
title_full |
Songbird dynamics under the sea: acoustic interactions between humpback whales suggest song mediates male interactions |
title_fullStr |
Songbird dynamics under the sea: acoustic interactions between humpback whales suggest song mediates male interactions |
title_full_unstemmed |
Songbird dynamics under the sea: acoustic interactions between humpback whales suggest song mediates male interactions |
title_sort |
songbird dynamics under the sea: acoustic interactions between humpback whales suggest song mediates male interactions |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.171298 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.171298 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.171298 |
genre |
Humpback Whale |
genre_facet |
Humpback Whale |
op_source |
Royal Society Open Science volume 5, issue 2, page 171298 ISSN 2054-5703 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.171298 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
5 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
171298 |
_version_ |
1802645332482326528 |