Sperm whale codas may encode individuality as well as clan identity

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
• Main Authors: Oliveira, Cláudia, Wahlberg, Magnus, Silva, Mónica A., Johnson, Mark, Antunes, Ricardo, Wisniewska, Danuta M., Fais, Andrea, Gonçalves, João, Madsen, Peter T.
• Other Authors: European Commission, University of St Andrews. School of Biology, University of St Andrews. Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews. Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland, University of St Andrews. Sound Tags Group, University of St Andrews. Bioacoustics group, University of St Andrews. Scottish Oceans Institute
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: QH301 Biology; Acoustics and Ultrasonics; Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); QH301; Sperm whale
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/9852; https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4949478

The research was funded by the Danish Research Council; the Carlsberg Foundation; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT); Fundo Regional da Ciência, Tecnologia (FRCT) through research projects TRACE-PTDC/MAR/74071/2006 and MAPCET-M2.1.2/F/012/2011 [Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional, the Competitiveness Factors Operational (COMPETE), Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional (QREN) European Social Fund, and Proconvergencia Açores/European Union Program]; Aarhus University; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; University of Southern Denmark and University of La Laguna. We acknowledge funds provided by FCT to MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (UID/MAR/04292/2013) and Instituto do Mar at University of the Azores and by the FRCT – Government of the Azores pluriannual funding. C.O. was funded by FCT (SFRH/BD/37668/2007). M.A.S. was supported by an FCT postdoctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/29841/2006) and is currently supported by POPH, QREN European Social Fund and the Portuguese Ministry for Science and Education, through an FCT Investigator grant. M.J. is supported by the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland (MASTS) and a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant. D.M.W. was funded by a Ph.D. stipend from the Oticon Foundation, Denmark. Sperm whales produce codas for communication that can be grouped into different types according to their temporal patterns. Codas have led researchers to propose that sperm whales belong to distinct cultural clans, but it is presently unclear if they also convey individual information. Coda clicks comprise a series of pulses and the delay between pulses is a function of organ size, and therefore body size, and so is one potential source of individual information. Another potential individual-specific parameter could be the inter-click intervals within codas. To test whether these parameters provide reliable individual cues, stereo-hydrophone acoustic tags (Dtags) were attached to five sperm whales of the Azores, recording a total of 802 codas. A ...