Predictive model of sperm whale prey capture attempts from time-depth data

• Published in: Movement Ecology
• Main Authors: Pérez-Jorge, Sergi, Oliveira, Cláudia, Rivas, Esteban Iglesias, Prieto, Rui, Cascão, Irma, Wensveen, Paul J., Miller, Patrick J. O., Silva, Mónica A.
• Other Authors: University of St Andrews. School of Biology, University of St Andrews. Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews. Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews. Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences, University of St Andrews. Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution, University of St Andrews. Bioacoustics group, University of St Andrews. Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Physeter macrocephalus; Vertical movement; Buzzes; Foraging behaviour; Low-resolution data; Time-depth recorders; QL Zoology; NDAS; SDG 14 - Life Below Water; MCC; QL; Sperm whale
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/27767; https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-023-00393-2

Funding: Research was supported by the Portuguese Science & Technology Foundation (FCT), the Azorean Science & Technology Fund (FRCT), and the EU through research projects WATCH IT-Acores-01-0145-FEDER-000057, FCT-IF/00943/2013/CP1199/CT0001, META-FA_06_2017_017, and SUMMER-H2020 GA 817806, co-funded by FEDER, COMPETE, QREN, POPH, ESF, PO AZORES 2020, Portuguese Ministry for Science and Education, and individual contracts/grants to CO (WATCH IT-Acores-01-0145-FEDER-000057, 3/SRMCT/DRAM/2019 under RAGES-SUB/ENV.C.2-GA 110661, and INTERTAGUA-MAC2/1.1a/385), SPJ (SUMMER-H2020 GA 817806), IC (FCT-IP Project UIDP/05634/2020). PJW is funded by RANNÍS Icelandic Research Fund grant 207081. RP and MAS are co-financed by AZORES2020, through the EU Fund 01-0145-FEDER-000140 “MarAZ Researchers: Consolidate a body of researchers in Marine Sciences in the Azores”. Okeanos is funded by FCT (UIDB/05634/2020) and by the Regional Government of the Azores through the initiative to support the Research Centers of the University of the Azores (M1.1.A/REEQ.CIENTÍFICO UI&D/2021/010). Background High-resolution sound and movement recording tags offer unprecedented insights into the fine-scale foraging behaviour of cetaceans, especially echolocating odontocetes, enabling the estimation of a series of foraging metrics. However, these tags are expensive, making them inaccessible to most researchers. Time-Depth Recorders (TDRs), which have been widely used to study diving and foraging behaviour of marine mammals, offer a more affordable alternative. Unfortunately, data collected by TDRs are bi-dimensional (time and depth only), so quantifying foraging effort from those data is challenging. Methods A predictive model of the foraging effort of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) was developed to identify prey capture attempts (PCAs) from time-depth data. Data from high-resolution acoustic and movement recording tags deployed on 12 sperm whales were downsampled to 1 Hz to match the typical TDR sampling resolution and used to ...