Abstract
ESR Endangered Species Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials ESR 30:157-169 (2016) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00735 Calls of North Atlantic right whales Eubalaena glacialis contain information on individual identity and age class Jessica A. McCordic*, Holly Root-Gutteridge, Dana A. Cusano, Samuel L. Denes, Susan E. Parks Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA *Corresponding author: jamccord@syr.edu ABSTRACT: Passive acoustic monitoring is a powerful tool that allows remote detection of marine mammals through their vocalizations. While call detection provides information on species presence, additional information may be contained within the vocalizations that could provide more information regarding the demographics and/or number of individuals in a particular area based on passive acoustic detections. The North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis produces a stereotyped upswept call, termed the upcall, that is thought to function as a long-distance contact call in this species. As such, the call is likely to contain cues providing information about the individual producing it. The goal of this study was to test whether the right whale upcall could potentially encode information related to the identity and age of the caller. Using upcalls recorded from 14 known individuals through non-invasive suction cup archival acoustic tags, we demonstrate that the upcall does contain sufficient information to discriminate individual identity and age class, with average classification levels of 72.6 and 86.1%, respectively. Parameters measured from the fundamental frequency, duration, and formant structure were most important for discrimination among individuals. This study is the first step in demonstrating the feasibility of obtaining additional data from passive acoustic monitoring to aid in the conservation efforts for this highly endangered species. KEY WORDS: Right whale · Acoustic communication · Vocal signature · Individual recognition · Passive acoustic monitoring · Formants Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: McCordic JA, Root-Gutteridge H, Cusano DA, Denes SL, Parks SE (2016) Calls of North Atlantic right whales Eubalaena glacialis contain information on individual identity and age class. Endang Species Res 30:157-169. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00735 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in ESR Vol. 30. Online publication date: May 31, 2016 Print ISSN: 1863-5407; Online ISSN: 1613-4796 Copyright © 2016 Inter-Research.
Highlights
The North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis is one of the most closely studied mysticete whales in the world (Kraus et al 2005)
The goal of this study was to explore the potential for individual variation within the upcall of the North Atlantic right whale
Data were collected from North Atlantic right whales using suction-cup-attached digital archival acoustic recording tags (DTAG: Johnson & Tyack 2003; Acousonde: Burgess 2009) as part of other research efforts in 3 of the critical habitat areas for this species (Kraus & Rolland 2007): the Bay of Fundy, Canada (Nowacek et al 2001, 2004, Johnson & Tyack 2003); Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts, USA (Parks et al 2011); and the Southeastern US (Nousek-McGregor 2010)
Summary
The North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis is one of the most closely studied mysticete whales in the world (Kraus et al 2005). There is growing interest in the use of PAM for greater insight into population ecology, including inferring behavioral activities based on sound types and obtaining robust estimates of the density of individuals in a given location in both terrestrial and marine habitats (Blumstein et al 2011, Marques et al 2013). Multiple sensors may be used to localize and track calling individuals, providing an estimate of the number of calling animals (Van Parijs et al 2009, Stanistreet et al 2013). Density estimation is possible from single sensors via a cue counting approach using known call rates (Dawson & Efford 2009, Küsel et al 2011, Marques et al 2011). If the recorded vocalizations contain measurable differences among individuals, these differences can improve density estimation, providing information on the minimum number of calling individuals and adding to estimates obtained from cue counting or other methods (Terry et al 2005)
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