Ocean nomads or island specialists? Culturally driven habitat partitioning contrasts in scale between geographically isolated sperm whale populations

The sperm whale ( Physeter macrocephalus ) is a deep-diving cetacean with a global distribution and a multi-leveled, culturally segregated, social structure. While sperm whales have previously been described as ‘ocean nomads’, this might not be universal. We conducted surveys of sperm whales along t...

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Published in:Royal Society Open Science
Main Authors: Vachon, Felicia, Hersh, Taylor A., Rendell, Luke, Gero, Shane, Whitehead, Hal
Other Authors: Animal Behavior Society, Agoa Sanctuary, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, National Geographic Society
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: The Royal Society 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211737
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.211737
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.211737
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spelling crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsos.211737 2024-09-15T18:30:30+00:00 Ocean nomads or island specialists? Culturally driven habitat partitioning contrasts in scale between geographically isolated sperm whale populations Vachon, Felicia Hersh, Taylor A. Rendell, Luke Gero, Shane Whitehead, Hal Animal Behavior Society Agoa Sanctuary Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada National Geographic Society 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211737 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.211737 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.211737 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Royal Society Open Science volume 9, issue 5 ISSN 2054-5703 journal-article 2022 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211737 2024-08-19T04:24:55Z The sperm whale ( Physeter macrocephalus ) is a deep-diving cetacean with a global distribution and a multi-leveled, culturally segregated, social structure. While sperm whales have previously been described as ‘ocean nomads’, this might not be universal. We conducted surveys of sperm whales along the Lesser Antilles to document the acoustic repertoires, movements and distributions of Eastern Caribbean (EC) sperm whale cultural groups (called vocal clans). In addition to documenting a potential third vocal clan in the EC, we found strong evidence of fine-scale habitat partitioning between vocal clans with scales of horizontal movements an order of magnitude smaller than from comparable studies on Eastern Tropical Pacific sperm whales. These results suggest that sperm whales can display cultural ecological specialization and habitat partitioning on flexible spatial scales according to local conditions and broadens our perception of the ecological flexibility of the species. This study highlights the importance of incorporating multiple temporal and spatial scales to understand the impact of culture on ecological adaptability, as well as the dangers of extrapolating results across geographical areas and cultural groups. Article in Journal/Newspaper Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale The Royal Society Royal Society Open Science 9 5
institution Open Polar
collection The Royal Society
op_collection_id crroyalsociety
language English
description The sperm whale ( Physeter macrocephalus ) is a deep-diving cetacean with a global distribution and a multi-leveled, culturally segregated, social structure. While sperm whales have previously been described as ‘ocean nomads’, this might not be universal. We conducted surveys of sperm whales along the Lesser Antilles to document the acoustic repertoires, movements and distributions of Eastern Caribbean (EC) sperm whale cultural groups (called vocal clans). In addition to documenting a potential third vocal clan in the EC, we found strong evidence of fine-scale habitat partitioning between vocal clans with scales of horizontal movements an order of magnitude smaller than from comparable studies on Eastern Tropical Pacific sperm whales. These results suggest that sperm whales can display cultural ecological specialization and habitat partitioning on flexible spatial scales according to local conditions and broadens our perception of the ecological flexibility of the species. This study highlights the importance of incorporating multiple temporal and spatial scales to understand the impact of culture on ecological adaptability, as well as the dangers of extrapolating results across geographical areas and cultural groups.
author2 Animal Behavior Society
Agoa Sanctuary
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
National Geographic Society
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Vachon, Felicia
Hersh, Taylor A.
Rendell, Luke
Gero, Shane
Whitehead, Hal
spellingShingle Vachon, Felicia
Hersh, Taylor A.
Rendell, Luke
Gero, Shane
Whitehead, Hal
Ocean nomads or island specialists? Culturally driven habitat partitioning contrasts in scale between geographically isolated sperm whale populations
author_facet Vachon, Felicia
Hersh, Taylor A.
Rendell, Luke
Gero, Shane
Whitehead, Hal
author_sort Vachon, Felicia
title Ocean nomads or island specialists? Culturally driven habitat partitioning contrasts in scale between geographically isolated sperm whale populations
title_short Ocean nomads or island specialists? Culturally driven habitat partitioning contrasts in scale between geographically isolated sperm whale populations
title_full Ocean nomads or island specialists? Culturally driven habitat partitioning contrasts in scale between geographically isolated sperm whale populations
title_fullStr Ocean nomads or island specialists? Culturally driven habitat partitioning contrasts in scale between geographically isolated sperm whale populations
title_full_unstemmed Ocean nomads or island specialists? Culturally driven habitat partitioning contrasts in scale between geographically isolated sperm whale populations
title_sort ocean nomads or island specialists? culturally driven habitat partitioning contrasts in scale between geographically isolated sperm whale populations
publisher The Royal Society
publishDate 2022
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211737
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.211737
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.211737
genre Physeter macrocephalus
Sperm whale
genre_facet Physeter macrocephalus
Sperm whale
op_source Royal Society Open Science
volume 9, issue 5
ISSN 2054-5703
op_rights https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211737
container_title Royal Society Open Science
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