Cryptic vocal behavior of foraging humpback whales on feeding grounds in West Greenland
Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) sing in mating aggregations in the form of song displays, but much less is known about how both sexes use sound on their feeding grounds. Here, we test different hypotheses about the function of vocalizations in 14 foraging humpback whales tagged with so...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0006735 https://researchportal.murdoch.edu.au/esploro/outputs/journalArticle/Cryptic-vocal-behavior-of-foraging-humpback/991005545550107891 |
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ftmurdochunivall:oai:alma.61MUN_INST:11136671480007891 2024-09-15T18:09:01+00:00 Cryptic vocal behavior of foraging humpback whales on feeding grounds in West Greenland Videsen, S.K.A. Simon, M. Johnson, M. Madsen, P.T. Christiansen, F. 2021 https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0006735 https://researchportal.murdoch.edu.au/esploro/outputs/journalArticle/Cryptic-vocal-behavior-of-foraging-humpback/991005545550107891 eng eng Acoustical Society of America ispartof: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America spage 2879 epage 2887 issue 4 vol 150 doi:10.1121/10.0006735 WOS:000710704800004 0001-4966 https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0006735 991005545550107891 https://researchportal.murdoch.edu.au/esploro/outputs/journalArticle/Cryptic-vocal-behavior-of-foraging-humpback/991005545550107891 alma:61MUN_INST/bibs/991005545550107891 © 2021 Acoustical Society of America. text Article 2021 ftmurdochunivall https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0006735 2024-08-15T00:52:48Z Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) sing in mating aggregations in the form of song displays, but much less is known about how both sexes use sound on their feeding grounds. Here, we test different hypotheses about the function of vocalizations in 14 foraging humpback whales tagged with sound and movement recording Dtags in Greenland. We show that this population of foraging humpback whales have an overall low call rate of 11.9 calls h−1 (inter-quartile range = 12.1) with no support for the hypotheses that they employ sound in the localization or manipulation of prey nor in the coordination of lunge feeding. The calls had a mean received level of 135 ± 5dB re 1 μPa, which is some 30 dB lower than maximum levels of song recorded on similar deployed tags, suggesting a much smaller active space of these vocalizations. This reduced active space might, in concert with low call rates, serve to mitigate eavesdropping by predatory killer whales or conspecifics competing for the same prey resources. We conclude that feeding humpback whales in Greenland produce low level, infrequent calls suggesting that calling is not a prerequisite for successful feeding, but likely serves to mediate within group social interactions Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Megaptera novaeangliae Murdoch University Research Portal The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 150 4 2879 2887 |
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Open Polar |
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Murdoch University Research Portal |
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ftmurdochunivall |
language |
English |
description |
Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) sing in mating aggregations in the form of song displays, but much less is known about how both sexes use sound on their feeding grounds. Here, we test different hypotheses about the function of vocalizations in 14 foraging humpback whales tagged with sound and movement recording Dtags in Greenland. We show that this population of foraging humpback whales have an overall low call rate of 11.9 calls h−1 (inter-quartile range = 12.1) with no support for the hypotheses that they employ sound in the localization or manipulation of prey nor in the coordination of lunge feeding. The calls had a mean received level of 135 ± 5dB re 1 μPa, which is some 30 dB lower than maximum levels of song recorded on similar deployed tags, suggesting a much smaller active space of these vocalizations. This reduced active space might, in concert with low call rates, serve to mitigate eavesdropping by predatory killer whales or conspecifics competing for the same prey resources. We conclude that feeding humpback whales in Greenland produce low level, infrequent calls suggesting that calling is not a prerequisite for successful feeding, but likely serves to mediate within group social interactions |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Videsen, S.K.A. Simon, M. Johnson, M. Madsen, P.T. Christiansen, F. |
spellingShingle |
Videsen, S.K.A. Simon, M. Johnson, M. Madsen, P.T. Christiansen, F. Cryptic vocal behavior of foraging humpback whales on feeding grounds in West Greenland |
author_facet |
Videsen, S.K.A. Simon, M. Johnson, M. Madsen, P.T. Christiansen, F. |
author_sort |
Videsen, S.K.A. |
title |
Cryptic vocal behavior of foraging humpback whales on feeding grounds in West Greenland |
title_short |
Cryptic vocal behavior of foraging humpback whales on feeding grounds in West Greenland |
title_full |
Cryptic vocal behavior of foraging humpback whales on feeding grounds in West Greenland |
title_fullStr |
Cryptic vocal behavior of foraging humpback whales on feeding grounds in West Greenland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Cryptic vocal behavior of foraging humpback whales on feeding grounds in West Greenland |
title_sort |
cryptic vocal behavior of foraging humpback whales on feeding grounds in west greenland |
publisher |
Acoustical Society of America |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0006735 https://researchportal.murdoch.edu.au/esploro/outputs/journalArticle/Cryptic-vocal-behavior-of-foraging-humpback/991005545550107891 |
genre |
Greenland Megaptera novaeangliae |
genre_facet |
Greenland Megaptera novaeangliae |
op_relation |
ispartof: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America spage 2879 epage 2887 issue 4 vol 150 doi:10.1121/10.0006735 WOS:000710704800004 0001-4966 https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0006735 991005545550107891 https://researchportal.murdoch.edu.au/esploro/outputs/journalArticle/Cryptic-vocal-behavior-of-foraging-humpback/991005545550107891 alma:61MUN_INST/bibs/991005545550107891 |
op_rights |
© 2021 Acoustical Society of America. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0006735 |
container_title |
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America |
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150 |
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4 |
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