The influence of social structure on vocal signatures in group-living resident killer whales (Orcinus orca)
Constant association with a specific set of individuals appears to be advantageous for some species. This lifestyle then generates many modifications on individual behavior, especially to coordinate relationships between individuals within the group, and vocal signals are likely to be shaped by soci...
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University of St Andrews
2021
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ftstandrewserep:oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/21887 2023-07-02T03:32:50+02:00 The influence of social structure on vocal signatures in group-living resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) Nousek, Anna E. Miller, Patrick 1 v. (various pagings) : ill. (some col.) 30 cm. 2021-04-08T08:57:27Z application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10023/21887 en eng University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews http://hdl.handle.net/10023/21887 QL737.C432N7 Killer whale--Vocalization Killer whale--Behavior Social behavior in animals Thesis Doctoral MPhil Master of Philosophy 2021 ftstandrewserep 2023-06-13T18:31:11Z Constant association with a specific set of individuals appears to be advantageous for some species. This lifestyle then generates many modifications on individual behavior, especially to coordinate relationships between individuals within the group, and vocal signals are likely to be shaped by social interactions as they may play a role in mediating social roles. Northern resident killer whales (orcinus orca) use group-specific signatures within their stable social system but to date no study has thoroughly examined calling behavior amongst individuals within different family groups. Thus, the potential for individual-specific signatures has not been identified. This study aimed to describe the effects of their rigid social structure on the vocal behavior of individuals through comparing the intra-individual call similarity with their inter-individual similarity. A towed beamforming array of hydrophones allowed calls to be ascribed to specific individuals. This study quantified call similarity through the ability of a pattern recognition neural network to discriminate between frequency contours of individuals within the same matrilineal group, in different matrilineal groups but the same vocal clan and across different clans. Calls were found to contain features distinct to an individual, but these features are less prominent than group-specific features. Similarity of both the high and low frequency contours was strongly affected by the social relationship of pairs of whales, with the network having the highest error rate for same whale comparisons, a lower error rate for comparisons within a matrilineal group, and the lowest error rate for comparisons between individuals in different matrilineal groups. The correlation between social relationship and acoustic similarity suggests social learning as the mechanism for transmission and that group identity has a stronger influence on the time-frequency structure of stereotyped killer whale calls than individual identity. The social bonds between groups of ... Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis Killer Whale Orca Orcinus orca Killer whale University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftstandrewserep |
language |
English |
topic |
QL737.C432N7 Killer whale--Vocalization Killer whale--Behavior Social behavior in animals |
spellingShingle |
QL737.C432N7 Killer whale--Vocalization Killer whale--Behavior Social behavior in animals Nousek, Anna E. The influence of social structure on vocal signatures in group-living resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) |
topic_facet |
QL737.C432N7 Killer whale--Vocalization Killer whale--Behavior Social behavior in animals |
description |
Constant association with a specific set of individuals appears to be advantageous for some species. This lifestyle then generates many modifications on individual behavior, especially to coordinate relationships between individuals within the group, and vocal signals are likely to be shaped by social interactions as they may play a role in mediating social roles. Northern resident killer whales (orcinus orca) use group-specific signatures within their stable social system but to date no study has thoroughly examined calling behavior amongst individuals within different family groups. Thus, the potential for individual-specific signatures has not been identified. This study aimed to describe the effects of their rigid social structure on the vocal behavior of individuals through comparing the intra-individual call similarity with their inter-individual similarity. A towed beamforming array of hydrophones allowed calls to be ascribed to specific individuals. This study quantified call similarity through the ability of a pattern recognition neural network to discriminate between frequency contours of individuals within the same matrilineal group, in different matrilineal groups but the same vocal clan and across different clans. Calls were found to contain features distinct to an individual, but these features are less prominent than group-specific features. Similarity of both the high and low frequency contours was strongly affected by the social relationship of pairs of whales, with the network having the highest error rate for same whale comparisons, a lower error rate for comparisons within a matrilineal group, and the lowest error rate for comparisons between individuals in different matrilineal groups. The correlation between social relationship and acoustic similarity suggests social learning as the mechanism for transmission and that group identity has a stronger influence on the time-frequency structure of stereotyped killer whale calls than individual identity. The social bonds between groups of ... |
author2 |
Miller, Patrick |
format |
Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
author |
Nousek, Anna E. |
author_facet |
Nousek, Anna E. |
author_sort |
Nousek, Anna E. |
title |
The influence of social structure on vocal signatures in group-living resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) |
title_short |
The influence of social structure on vocal signatures in group-living resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) |
title_full |
The influence of social structure on vocal signatures in group-living resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) |
title_fullStr |
The influence of social structure on vocal signatures in group-living resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) |
title_full_unstemmed |
The influence of social structure on vocal signatures in group-living resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) |
title_sort |
influence of social structure on vocal signatures in group-living resident killer whales (orcinus orca) |
publisher |
University of St Andrews |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/21887 |
op_coverage |
1 v. (various pagings) : ill. (some col.) 30 cm. |
genre |
Killer Whale Orca Orcinus orca Killer whale |
genre_facet |
Killer Whale Orca Orcinus orca Killer whale |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/21887 |
_version_ |
1770272520687058944 |