Humpback whale song on the Western Antarctic Peninsula feeding ground.

Abstract

Humpback whale song is a complex and highly stereotyped acoustic display believed to be associated with breeding activities. The song has primarily been recorded from male whales on the low‐latitude breeding grounds, though singing has also been documented on some feeding grounds during late fall and early spring using stationary passive acoustic recorders. Here, the song was documented with animal‐bourne tags in a relatively unstudied population of humpback whales along the Western Antarctic Peninsula feeding ground during late fall (May and June). DTAGs were attached for 24‐h periods to six whales in 2009 and eight whales in 2010 to record sound production and body orientation. Song chorusing has been present on all tag acoustic records analyzed to date, and multiple whales tagged in 2010 were actively singing. Song bouts in the 2010 records were generally less than one dive cycle in duration and were often surrounded by periods of social sound production. This is the first description of humpback whale song in the Antarctic, and its frequent occurrence is indicative of the amount of social activity on this feeding ground. These data suggest that humpback whale mating cycles may be more driven by season than by physical location.