Sound production and associated behavior of tagged fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) in the Southern California Bight
By A. Stimpert, S. DeRuiter, E. Falcone, J. Joseph, Annie B. Douglas, D. Moretti, Ari S. Friedlaender, John Calambokidis, G. Gailey, P. Tyack and 1 more. Animal Biotelemetry, 2015
83 citations recorded by the source corpus.
BackgroundFor marine animals, acoustic communication is critical for many life functions, yet individual calling behavior is poorly understood for most large whale species. These topics are important for understanding whale social behavior and can also serve as a baseline for behavioral studies assessing whale response to disturbance. Using a new technique for identifying the calling individual, we measured body orientation, dive behavior, and surface social behavior in relation to call production for tagged fin whales in Southern California.ResultsBehavioral metrics associated with elevated call rates included shallow maximum dive depths (10–15 m), little body movement, negative pitch in body orientation, and moderate body roll. Calling whales were also more likely to be traveling than milling, in groups rather than solitary, and without change in group size compared to non-calling whales.ConclusionsThese are the first descriptions of body posture and depths at which fin whales are most likely to call, and some possible sound propagation and/or anatomical reasons for these results are considered. The call behavior characterizations presented here will help in predicting calling behavior from surface behavior, informing interpretation of passive acoustic data, and determining the effects of anthropogenic sound on whales in Southern California.
Subfields: Developmental Biology, Ecology, Oceanography
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1fc71811911a64433320ad21694ae631c05f066c
Citations in the corpus
- Marine mammals and sonar: Dose‐response studies, the risk‐disturbance hypothesis and the role of exposure context (2018, unknown): “…focused on characterizing baseline diving (e.g. Tyack, Johnson, Soto, Sturlese, & Madsen, 2006), foraging (e.g. Moretti et al., 2010, 2014; Samarra & Miller, 2015; Visser et al., 2014) and vocal behaviour (e.g. Goldbogen et al., 2014; Sayigh, Quick, Hastie, & Tyack, 2013; Stimpert et al., 2015).”
- Experimental field studies to measure behavioral responses of cetaceans to sonar (2016, unknown): “Finally, novel methods to identify vocalizing individuals within groups are enabling baseline vocalization measurements and examinations of potential effects of noise on calling and echolocation (e.g. Goldbogen et al. 2014, Stimpert et al. 2015, Arranz et al. 2016).”