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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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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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 |
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Open Polar |
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The Royal Society |
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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 |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
5 |
_version_ |
1810471966422859776 |