The social context of individual foraging behaviour in long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas)

Visser, Fleur; Miller, Patrick J. O.; Antunes, Ricardo; Oudejans, Machiel G.; MacKenzie, Monique; Aoki, Kosuke; Lam, Frans‐Peter A.; Kvadsheim, Petter H.; Huisman, Jef; Tyack, Peter L.

doi:10.1163/1568539x-00003195

Cited by 38 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Hence, group-level behavior was sampled when the tagged individual was visible at the surface. See Visser et al [2014] for more details on the focal follow protocol. Figure 1 shows the call rates in each of the 7 data sets, emphasizing also that the data sets have different durations.…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

An analysis of pilot whale vocalization activity using hidden Markov models

Popov

Langrock

DeRuiter

et al. 2017

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Vocalizations of cetaceans form a key component of their social interactions. Such vocalization activity is driven by the behavioral states of the whales, which are not directly observable, so that latent-state models are natural candidates for modeling empirical data on vocalizations. In this paper, we use hidden Markov models to analyze calling activity of long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) recorded over three years in the Vestfjord basin off Lofoten, Norway. Baseline models are used to motivate the use of three states, while more complex models are fit to study the influence of covariates on the state-switching dynamics. Our analysis demonstrates the potential usefulness of hidden Markov models in concisely yet accurately describing the stochastic patterns found in animal communication data, thereby providing a framework for drawing meaningful biological inference.

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Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

An analysis of pilot whale vocalization activity using hidden Markov models

Popov

Langrock

DeRuiter

et al. 2017

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Visual data collection included the horizontal tracking of the focal whale and surface behavioral sampling (Visser et al 2014). …”

Section: Behavioral Response Metricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Simultaneously with visual recording of the tagged whale positions at the surface, we scored group size, defined as the number of individuals within 200 m of the focal animal (Visser et al 2014).…”

Section: Group Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological significance of sperm whale responses to sonar: comparison with anti-predator responses

Curé¹,

Isojunno²,

Visser³

et al. 2016

Endang. Species. Res.

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“…Calibrating visual observer estimates by periodically comparing them with a laser range finder or comparing estimates to a GPS buoy such as Visser et al (2014) did when following groups of pilot whales from 100 to 400m, can improve accuracy and precision.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The choreography of belonging : toothed whale spatial cohesion and acoustic communication

Macfarlane¹

2016

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To maintain the benefits of group membership, social animals need mechanisms to stay together and reunite if separated. This thesis explores the acoustic signals that dolphins use to overcome this challenge and mediate their complex relationships in a dynamic 3D environment. Bottlenose dolphins are the most extensively studied toothed whale, but research on acoustic behavior has been limited by an inability to identify the vocalizing individual or measure inter-animal distances in the wild. This thesis resolves these problems by simultaneously deploying acoustic tags on closely-associated pairs of known animals. These first reported deployments of acoustic tags on dolphins allowed me to characterize temporal patterns of vocal behavior on an individual level, uncovering large variation in vocal rates and inter-call waiting time between animals. Looking more specifically at signature whistles, a type of call often linked to cohesion, I found that when one animal produced its own signature whistle, its partner was more likely to respond with its own whistle. To better evaluate potential cohesion functions for signature whistles, I then modeled the probability of an animal producing a signature whistle at different times during a temporary separation and reunion from its partner. These data suggest that dolphins use signature whistles to signal a motivation to reunite and to confirm identity prior to rejoining their partner. To examine how cohesion is maintained during separations that do not include whistles, I then investigated whether dolphins could keep track of their partners by passively listening to conspecific echolocation clicks. Using a multi-pronged approach, I demonstrated that the passive detection range of echolocation clicks overlaps with the typical separation ranges of Sarasota mother-calf pairs and that the amount of time since an animal was last able to detect a click from its partner helped explain its probability of producing a signature whistle. Finally, this thesis developed a portable stereo camera system to study cohesion in situations where tagging is not possible. Integrating a GPS receiver, an attitude sensor and 3D stereo photogrammetry, the system rapidly positions multiple animals, grounding behavioral observations in quantitative metrics and characterizing fine-scale changes that might otherwise be missed.

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The social context of individual foraging behaviour in long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas)

Cited by 38 publications

References 40 publications

An analysis of pilot whale vocalization activity using hidden Markov models

An analysis of pilot whale vocalization activity using hidden Markov models

Biological significance of sperm whale responses to sonar: comparison with anti-predator responses

The choreography of belonging : toothed whale spatial cohesion and acoustic communication

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