Bayesian three-dimensional reconstruction of toothed whale trajectories: Passive acoustics assisted with visual and tagging measurements

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
• Main Author: Laplanche, Christophe
• Other Authors: Laboratoire Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Environnement (ECOLAB), Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Institut Ecologie et Environnement (INEE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2012
• Subjects: Bayesian model; BUGS; Trajectory; Toothed whales; Sperm whales; [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology; [SDV.BIBS]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Quantitative Methods [q-bio.QM]; [INFO.INFO-BI]Computer Science [cs]/Bioinformatics [q-bio.QM]; Physeter macrocephalus; Sperm whale; toothed whale; toothed whales
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00831460; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00831460/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00831460/file/laplanche_6859.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4757740

International audience The author describes and evaluates a Bayesian method to reconstruct three-dimensional toothed whale trajectories from a series of echolocation signals. Localization by using passive acoustic data (time of arrival of source signals at receptors) is assisted by using visual data (coordinates of the whale when diving and resurfacing) and tag information (movement statistics). The efficiency of the Bayesian method is compared to the standard minimum mean squared error statistical approach by comparing the reconstruction results of 48 simulated sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) trajectories. The use of the advanced Bayesian method reduces bias (standard deviation) with respect to the standard method up to a factor of 8.9 (13.6). The author provides open-source software which is functional with acoustic data which would be collected in the field from any three-dimensional receptor array design. This approach renews passive acoustics as a valuable tool to study the underwater behavior of toothed whales.