Culture impacts the distribution and habitat use of sperm whales in the Eastern Caribbean
Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are cetaceans with a worldwide distribution and a complex social structure. Sperm whales are members of cultural groups, called “vocal clans”. Members of a vocal clan have a distinctive suite of socially learned social calls, and do not associate with individual...
Main Authors: | , |
---|---|
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
Underline Science Inc.
2021
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.48448/dpkk-h849 https://underline.io/lecture/21943-culture-impacts-the-distribution-and-habitat-use-of-sperm-whales-in-the-eastern-caribbean |
id |
ftdatacite:10.48448/dpkk-h849 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdatacite:10.48448/dpkk-h849 2023-05-15T17:59:26+02:00 Culture impacts the distribution and habitat use of sperm whales in the Eastern Caribbean Cultural Evolution Society 2021 2021 Vachon, Felicia 2021 https://dx.doi.org/10.48448/dpkk-h849 https://underline.io/lecture/21943-culture-impacts-the-distribution-and-habitat-use-of-sperm-whales-in-the-eastern-caribbean unknown Underline Science Inc. Ethology Society and Culture Anthrozoology Marine Biology MediaObject article Conference talk Audiovisual 2021 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.48448/dpkk-h849 2022-02-09T11:22:43Z Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are cetaceans with a worldwide distribution and a complex social structure. Sperm whales are members of cultural groups, called “vocal clans”. Members of a vocal clan have a distinctive suite of socially learned social calls, and do not associate with individuals from other vocal clans. However, whether vocal clan membership has implications beyond the use of a characteristic acoustic repertoire had never been tested in the Caribbean. Via a dedicated survey of sperm whales in the Lesser Antilles, we observed stark differences in vocal clan distributions across relatively small distances (<100km), with little to no overlap between them. These differences in distribution appear to relate to environmental variables with one vocal clan preferring island channels and areas of high eastward current speed and the other preferring canyons with low meridional velocity variance. Such fine-scale habitat partitioning is surprising for a species which is often referred to as an “ocean nomad” and contrasts with Eastern Tropical Pacific clans, which share habitats over much greater scales (we observe a factor of 10 difference between the movements of Eastern Caribbean and Eastern Tropical Pacific sperm whales). We hypothesize that Eastern Caribbean sperm whales are habitat specialists, with vocal clans specializing on the use of certain environmental features and maintaining this specialization through social learning. This not only highlights the need to incorporate culture in the field of conservation management, as different cultural groups have different distributions and habitat use, but also the inherent ties between culture and the environment. Article in Journal/Newspaper Physeter macrocephalus DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Pacific |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftdatacite |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Ethology Society and Culture Anthrozoology Marine Biology |
spellingShingle |
Ethology Society and Culture Anthrozoology Marine Biology Cultural Evolution Society 2021 2021 Vachon, Felicia Culture impacts the distribution and habitat use of sperm whales in the Eastern Caribbean |
topic_facet |
Ethology Society and Culture Anthrozoology Marine Biology |
description |
Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are cetaceans with a worldwide distribution and a complex social structure. Sperm whales are members of cultural groups, called “vocal clans”. Members of a vocal clan have a distinctive suite of socially learned social calls, and do not associate with individuals from other vocal clans. However, whether vocal clan membership has implications beyond the use of a characteristic acoustic repertoire had never been tested in the Caribbean. Via a dedicated survey of sperm whales in the Lesser Antilles, we observed stark differences in vocal clan distributions across relatively small distances (<100km), with little to no overlap between them. These differences in distribution appear to relate to environmental variables with one vocal clan preferring island channels and areas of high eastward current speed and the other preferring canyons with low meridional velocity variance. Such fine-scale habitat partitioning is surprising for a species which is often referred to as an “ocean nomad” and contrasts with Eastern Tropical Pacific clans, which share habitats over much greater scales (we observe a factor of 10 difference between the movements of Eastern Caribbean and Eastern Tropical Pacific sperm whales). We hypothesize that Eastern Caribbean sperm whales are habitat specialists, with vocal clans specializing on the use of certain environmental features and maintaining this specialization through social learning. This not only highlights the need to incorporate culture in the field of conservation management, as different cultural groups have different distributions and habitat use, but also the inherent ties between culture and the environment. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Cultural Evolution Society 2021 2021 Vachon, Felicia |
author_facet |
Cultural Evolution Society 2021 2021 Vachon, Felicia |
author_sort |
Cultural Evolution Society 2021 2021 |
title |
Culture impacts the distribution and habitat use of sperm whales in the Eastern Caribbean |
title_short |
Culture impacts the distribution and habitat use of sperm whales in the Eastern Caribbean |
title_full |
Culture impacts the distribution and habitat use of sperm whales in the Eastern Caribbean |
title_fullStr |
Culture impacts the distribution and habitat use of sperm whales in the Eastern Caribbean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Culture impacts the distribution and habitat use of sperm whales in the Eastern Caribbean |
title_sort |
culture impacts the distribution and habitat use of sperm whales in the eastern caribbean |
publisher |
Underline Science Inc. |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.48448/dpkk-h849 https://underline.io/lecture/21943-culture-impacts-the-distribution-and-habitat-use-of-sperm-whales-in-the-eastern-caribbean |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
Physeter macrocephalus |
genre_facet |
Physeter macrocephalus |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.48448/dpkk-h849 |
_version_ |
1766168245407055872 |