Evolution song patterns of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) during the breeding season 2012, 2013, and 2015 off the coast of Esmeraldas, Ecuador

During the breeding season southern male humpbacks whales (Megaptera Novaeangliae) emit a highly stereotyped, repetitive and progressively evolving sexual display called, “song”. The song is in constant state of change and represents a social component as whales are exchanging with one another. This...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Intriago Loor, María Marilda
Other Authors: Denkinger, Judith (dir)
Format: Bachelor Thesis
Language:Spanish
Published: Quito: USFQ, 2015. 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://repositorio.usfq.edu.ec/handle/23000/5028
Description
Summary:During the breeding season southern male humpbacks whales (Megaptera Novaeangliae) emit a highly stereotyped, repetitive and progressively evolving sexual display called, “song”. The song is in constant state of change and represents a social component as whales are exchanging with one another. This exchange is seen as a repeated, dynamic cultural change occurring across multiple populations at large geographic scales. This investigation describes the cultural changes that occurred in the breeding season 2012, 2013 and 2015 off the coast of Esmeraldas, Ecuador. Songs were grouped together based on qualitative similarity of themes into song types that were assigned color name as arbitrary labels. Three different song types were recorded in the region in 2012, 2013 and 2015. This research aims to demonstrate the usefulness and value of using vocal patterns as a way of understanding the evolution of the song that exist in the Tropical East Pacific population of Humpback Whales. Durante la época de reproducción las ballenas jorobadas machos (Megaptera novaeangliae) producen una demostración vocal sexual repetitiva o canto. El canto está en constante estado de cambio, y definitivamente hay un componente social , ya que las ballenas copian de otras ballenas y hay un cambio cultural dinámico ocurriendo a través de múltiples poblaciones. Esta investigación describe los cambios culturales que se produjeron en la temporada de reproducción 2012, 2013 y 2015 frente a las costas de Esmeraldas, Ecuador. Las canciones se agruparon en base a la similitud cualitativa de sus temas y a cada tipo de canción se le asigno un color representativo para su identificación. Tres diferentes tipos de canciones se registraron en la región en el 2012, 2013 y 2015. Esta investigación tiene como objetivo demostrar la utilidad y el valor del uso de patrones vocales como una forma de entender la evolución del canto que existe en la población del Pacifico Tropical Este.