Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Song on a Subarctic Feeding Ground
(2021) In Frontiers in Marine Science 8.- Abstract
Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are known to produce long complex sequences of structured vocalizations called song. Singing behavior has traditionally been associated with low latitude breeding grounds but is increasingly reported outside these areas. This study provides the first report of humpback whale songs in the subarctic waters of Northern Norway using a long-term bottom-moored hydrophone. Data processed included the months January–June 2018 and December 2018–January 2019. Out of 189 days with recordings, humpback whale singing was heard on 79 days. Singing was first detected beginning of January 2018 with a peak in February and was heard until mid-April. No singing activity was found during the summer months and... (More)
Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are known to produce long complex sequences of structured vocalizations called song. Singing behavior has traditionally been associated with low latitude breeding grounds but is increasingly reported outside these areas. This study provides the first report of humpback whale songs in the subarctic waters of Northern Norway using a long-term bottom-moored hydrophone. Data processed included the months January–June 2018 and December 2018–January 2019. Out of 189 days with recordings, humpback whale singing was heard on 79 days. Singing was first detected beginning of January 2018 with a peak in February and was heard until mid-April. No singing activity was found during the summer months and was heard again in December 2018, continuing over January 2019. A total of 131 song sessions, including 35 full sessions, were identified throughout the study period. The longest and shortest complete sessions lasted 815 and 13 min, respectively. The results confirm that singing can be heard over several months in winter and spring on a high latitude feeding ground. This provides additional evidence to the growing literature that singing is not an explicit behavior confined to low latitude breeding grounds. The peak of song occurrence in February appears to coincide with the reproductive cycle of humpback whales. Finally, this study indicates that song occurrence on a subarctic feeding ground likely aids the cultural transmission for the North Atlantic humpback whale population.
(Less)
- author
- Martin, Saskia C. ; Aniceto, Ana S. ; Ahonen, Heidi ; Pedersen, Geir and Lindstrøm, Ulf LU
- publishing date
- 2021-05-24
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- cetacean, Mysticeti, North Atlantic, Norway, passive acoustics, song occurrence
- in
- Frontiers in Marine Science
- volume
- 8
- article number
- 669748
- publisher
- Frontiers Media S. A.
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85107420721
- ISSN
- 2296-7745
- DOI
- 10.3389/fmars.2021.669748
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- Funding Information: We thank Guosong Zhang at the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research and Oliver Nilssen for helping with the Python code for downloading the dataset. Funding. Funding for this work was partially provided by a postdoc scholarship from VISTA?a research program in collaboration between the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters and Equinor. Acoustic sampling was provided by Equinor AA funding LoVe phase 1, and the Research Council of Norway under contract no. 245843 and partners funding LoVe phase 2. This project was made possible with the support of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union and open access funding enabled by UiT Arctic University of Norway. The authors declare that this project was partly funded by Equinor ASA. The funder was not involved in the study analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of this article or the decision to submit it for publication. Publisher Copyright: © Copyright © 2021 Martin, Aniceto, Ahonen, Pedersen and Lindstrøm. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
- id
- d8108b9a-1f24-4040-8230-7e61151155bd
- date added to LUP
- 2021-06-23 14:57:47
- date last changed
- 2022-04-27 02:31:05
@article{d8108b9a-1f24-4040-8230-7e61151155bd,
abstract = {{<p>Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are known to produce long complex sequences of structured vocalizations called song. Singing behavior has traditionally been associated with low latitude breeding grounds but is increasingly reported outside these areas. This study provides the first report of humpback whale songs in the subarctic waters of Northern Norway using a long-term bottom-moored hydrophone. Data processed included the months January–June 2018 and December 2018–January 2019. Out of 189 days with recordings, humpback whale singing was heard on 79 days. Singing was first detected beginning of January 2018 with a peak in February and was heard until mid-April. No singing activity was found during the summer months and was heard again in December 2018, continuing over January 2019. A total of 131 song sessions, including 35 full sessions, were identified throughout the study period. The longest and shortest complete sessions lasted 815 and 13 min, respectively. The results confirm that singing can be heard over several months in winter and spring on a high latitude feeding ground. This provides additional evidence to the growing literature that singing is not an explicit behavior confined to low latitude breeding grounds. The peak of song occurrence in February appears to coincide with the reproductive cycle of humpback whales. Finally, this study indicates that song occurrence on a subarctic feeding ground likely aids the cultural transmission for the North Atlantic humpback whale population.</p>}},
author = {{Martin, Saskia C. and Aniceto, Ana S. and Ahonen, Heidi and Pedersen, Geir and Lindstrøm, Ulf}},
issn = {{2296-7745}},
keywords = {{cetacean; Mysticeti; North Atlantic; Norway; passive acoustics; song occurrence}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{05}},
publisher = {{Frontiers Media S. A.}},
series = {{Frontiers in Marine Science}},
title = {{Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Song on a Subarctic Feeding Ground}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.669748}},
doi = {{10.3389/fmars.2021.669748}},
volume = {{8}},
year = {{2021}},
}