Classifying and combining herd surface activities and individual dive profiles to identify summer behaviours of beluga from the St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada
Studies of the behaviour of diving animals usually focus on either individual dives or surface group activities, but these complementary observations are seldom combined in the same study. We here study the summer (June-October) behaviour of St. Lawrence Estuary belugas (Delphinapterus leucas (Palla...
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ftunivtoronto:oai:localhost:1807/87411 2023-05-15T15:41:48+02:00 Classifying and combining herd surface activities and individual dive profiles to identify summer behaviours of beluga from the St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada Lemieux Lefebvre, Sébastien Lesage, Veronique Michaud, Robert Humphries, Murray 2017-06-22 http://hdl.handle.net/1807/87411 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjz-2017-0015 unknown NRC Research Press (a division of Canadian Science Publishing) 0008-4301 http://hdl.handle.net/1807/87411 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjz-2017-0015 Article 2017 ftunivtoronto 2020-06-17T12:16:48Z Studies of the behaviour of diving animals usually focus on either individual dives or surface group activities, but these complementary observations are seldom combined in the same study. We here study the summer (June-October) behaviour of St. Lawrence Estuary belugas (Delphinapterus leucas (Pallas, 1776)) by combining fine-scale individual diving data from 27 time-depth-speed recorder deployments (conducted in 2002-2005) with surface activity data from 1413 focal herd follows (conducted in1991-2012). We classified 6312 dives into seven dive types based on shape and swim speed. Dives were then combined into five bout types, including three pelagic, one benthic and one near-surface. We classified surface activities of herds into six clusters, differentiated primarily by their associated movement patterns (milling or directional) and further by herd structure and dispersion and occurrence of acrobatic surface events. Finally, we used herd focal follows conducted while tracking an individual beluga, to relate dive and bout types to surface activities. Results indicate that milling at the surface was more frequently related to benthic dives and potentially associated with behaviours such as benthic foraging, resting, socializing, and care of young. Directional surface movements were more frequently associated with pelagic dives likely used during pelagic foraging, exploration and travelling. The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author. Article in Journal/Newspaper Beluga Beluga* Delphinapterus leucas University of Toronto: Research Repository T-Space Canada |
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Open Polar |
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University of Toronto: Research Repository T-Space |
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ftunivtoronto |
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description |
Studies of the behaviour of diving animals usually focus on either individual dives or surface group activities, but these complementary observations are seldom combined in the same study. We here study the summer (June-October) behaviour of St. Lawrence Estuary belugas (Delphinapterus leucas (Pallas, 1776)) by combining fine-scale individual diving data from 27 time-depth-speed recorder deployments (conducted in 2002-2005) with surface activity data from 1413 focal herd follows (conducted in1991-2012). We classified 6312 dives into seven dive types based on shape and swim speed. Dives were then combined into five bout types, including three pelagic, one benthic and one near-surface. We classified surface activities of herds into six clusters, differentiated primarily by their associated movement patterns (milling or directional) and further by herd structure and dispersion and occurrence of acrobatic surface events. Finally, we used herd focal follows conducted while tracking an individual beluga, to relate dive and bout types to surface activities. Results indicate that milling at the surface was more frequently related to benthic dives and potentially associated with behaviours such as benthic foraging, resting, socializing, and care of young. Directional surface movements were more frequently associated with pelagic dives likely used during pelagic foraging, exploration and travelling. The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lemieux Lefebvre, Sébastien Lesage, Veronique Michaud, Robert Humphries, Murray |
spellingShingle |
Lemieux Lefebvre, Sébastien Lesage, Veronique Michaud, Robert Humphries, Murray Classifying and combining herd surface activities and individual dive profiles to identify summer behaviours of beluga from the St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada |
author_facet |
Lemieux Lefebvre, Sébastien Lesage, Veronique Michaud, Robert Humphries, Murray |
author_sort |
Lemieux Lefebvre, Sébastien |
title |
Classifying and combining herd surface activities and individual dive profiles to identify summer behaviours of beluga from the St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada |
title_short |
Classifying and combining herd surface activities and individual dive profiles to identify summer behaviours of beluga from the St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada |
title_full |
Classifying and combining herd surface activities and individual dive profiles to identify summer behaviours of beluga from the St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada |
title_fullStr |
Classifying and combining herd surface activities and individual dive profiles to identify summer behaviours of beluga from the St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada |
title_full_unstemmed |
Classifying and combining herd surface activities and individual dive profiles to identify summer behaviours of beluga from the St. Lawrence Estuary, Canada |
title_sort |
classifying and combining herd surface activities and individual dive profiles to identify summer behaviours of beluga from the st. lawrence estuary, canada |
publisher |
NRC Research Press (a division of Canadian Science Publishing) |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1807/87411 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjz-2017-0015 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
Beluga Beluga* Delphinapterus leucas |
genre_facet |
Beluga Beluga* Delphinapterus leucas |
op_relation |
0008-4301 http://hdl.handle.net/1807/87411 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjz-2017-0015 |
_version_ |
1766374694349438976 |