Extreme diversity in the songs of Spitsbergen's bowhead whales
Almost all mammals communicate using sound, but few species produce complex songs. Two baleen whales sing complex songs that change annually, though only the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) has received much research attention. This study focuses on the other baleen whale singer, the bowhead...
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ftoslouniv:oai:www.duo.uio.no:10852/72979 2023-05-15T15:35:59+02:00 Extreme diversity in the songs of Spitsbergen's bowhead whales Stafford, K.M. Lydersen, Christian Wiig, Øystein Kovacs, Kit M. 2018-06-22T10:19:58Z http://hdl.handle.net/10852/72979 http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-76107 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0056 EN eng http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-76107 Stafford, K.M. Lydersen, Christian Wiig, Øystein Kovacs, Kit M. . Extreme diversity in the songs of Spitsbergen's bowhead whales. Biology Letters. 2018, 14(4) http://hdl.handle.net/10852/72979 1593120 info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.jtitle=Biology Letters&rft.volume=14&rft.spage=&rft.date=2018 Biology Letters 14 4 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0056 URN:NBN:no-76107 Fulltext https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/72979/2/2018%2BExtreme%2Bdiversity%2Bin%2Bsongs.pdf Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY 1744-9561 Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed PublishedVersion 2018 ftoslouniv https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0056 2020-06-21T08:53:09Z Almost all mammals communicate using sound, but few species produce complex songs. Two baleen whales sing complex songs that change annually, though only the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) has received much research attention. This study focuses on the other baleen whale singer, the bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus). Members of the Spitsbergen bowhead whale population produced 184 different song types over a 3-year period, based on duty-cycled recordings from a site in Fram Strait in the northeast Atlantic. Distinct song types were recorded over short periods, lasting at most some months. This song diversity could be the result of population expansion, or immigration of animals from other populations that are no longer isolated from each other by heavy sea ice. However, this explanation does not account for the within season and annual shifting of song types. Other possible explanations for the extraordinary diversity in songs could be that it results either from weak selection pressure for interspecific identification or for maintenance of song characteristics or, alternatively, from strong pressure for novelty in a small population. Article in Journal/Newspaper Balaena mysticetus baleen whale baleen whales bowhead whale Fram Strait Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae Northeast Atlantic Sea ice Spitsbergen Universitet i Oslo: Digitale utgivelser ved UiO (DUO) Biology Letters 14 4 20180056 |
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Universitet i Oslo: Digitale utgivelser ved UiO (DUO) |
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ftoslouniv |
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English |
description |
Almost all mammals communicate using sound, but few species produce complex songs. Two baleen whales sing complex songs that change annually, though only the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) has received much research attention. This study focuses on the other baleen whale singer, the bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus). Members of the Spitsbergen bowhead whale population produced 184 different song types over a 3-year period, based on duty-cycled recordings from a site in Fram Strait in the northeast Atlantic. Distinct song types were recorded over short periods, lasting at most some months. This song diversity could be the result of population expansion, or immigration of animals from other populations that are no longer isolated from each other by heavy sea ice. However, this explanation does not account for the within season and annual shifting of song types. Other possible explanations for the extraordinary diversity in songs could be that it results either from weak selection pressure for interspecific identification or for maintenance of song characteristics or, alternatively, from strong pressure for novelty in a small population. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Stafford, K.M. Lydersen, Christian Wiig, Øystein Kovacs, Kit M. |
spellingShingle |
Stafford, K.M. Lydersen, Christian Wiig, Øystein Kovacs, Kit M. Extreme diversity in the songs of Spitsbergen's bowhead whales |
author_facet |
Stafford, K.M. Lydersen, Christian Wiig, Øystein Kovacs, Kit M. |
author_sort |
Stafford, K.M. |
title |
Extreme diversity in the songs of Spitsbergen's bowhead whales |
title_short |
Extreme diversity in the songs of Spitsbergen's bowhead whales |
title_full |
Extreme diversity in the songs of Spitsbergen's bowhead whales |
title_fullStr |
Extreme diversity in the songs of Spitsbergen's bowhead whales |
title_full_unstemmed |
Extreme diversity in the songs of Spitsbergen's bowhead whales |
title_sort |
extreme diversity in the songs of spitsbergen's bowhead whales |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10852/72979 http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-76107 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0056 |
genre |
Balaena mysticetus baleen whale baleen whales bowhead whale Fram Strait Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae Northeast Atlantic Sea ice Spitsbergen |
genre_facet |
Balaena mysticetus baleen whale baleen whales bowhead whale Fram Strait Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae Northeast Atlantic Sea ice Spitsbergen |
op_source |
1744-9561 |
op_relation |
http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-76107 Stafford, K.M. Lydersen, Christian Wiig, Øystein Kovacs, Kit M. . Extreme diversity in the songs of Spitsbergen's bowhead whales. Biology Letters. 2018, 14(4) http://hdl.handle.net/10852/72979 1593120 info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.jtitle=Biology Letters&rft.volume=14&rft.spage=&rft.date=2018 Biology Letters 14 4 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0056 URN:NBN:no-76107 Fulltext https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/72979/2/2018%2BExtreme%2Bdiversity%2Bin%2Bsongs.pdf |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0056 |
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Biology Letters |
container_volume |
14 |
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4 |
container_start_page |
20180056 |
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1766366320319791104 |