Greetings:
We are pleased to announce the publication of a new paper on humpback whale song. The paper is available as an Online First Article (prior to the print version) in the July 2013 issue of Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, and a PDF may be downloaded from Springer Direct if you or your institution has access. I will post a second notice when the print version appears with instructions as to how to obtain a PDF of that. You may contact me for further information.
Humpback whale song: who sings? Herman, L. M., Pack. A. A., Spitz, S. S., Herman, E. Y. K., Rose, K., Hakala, S. & Deakos, M. H. 2013. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 67 (3 July 2013) DOI 10.1007/s00265-013-1576-8
Abstract While on their winter breeding grounds, male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) produce long sequences of structured vocalizations called song, whose function within the mating system is still unresolved. Here we ask which males sing. Is it only those sexually mature, as typifies songbirds and some lekking ungulates in which vocalizations during the rut are restricted to mature males? Or do immature males join in the chorus? Using an underwater videogrammetric technique, we measured the body lengths of 87 humpback singers in the Hawaiian winter grounds. Applying length and sexual maturity relationships for North Pacific humpbacks as determined by biologists aboard twentieth century Japanese whaling vessels, we found that singer lengths ranged from 10.7 to 13.6 m, with 15 % of lengths indicative of probable sexual immaturity (length<11.3 m, p [maturity]<0.5). We interpret this broad participation of males as a lekking aggregation and the asynchronous singing chorus as an instance of by-product mutualism. The participation of many singers yields a heightened signal level that may attract more females to the singing area. Sexually mature males can benefit through access to more females. Immature males may gain deferred benefits through increased opportunities to learn and practice the social, behavioral, and acoustical skills and conventions of the winter grounds that they can apply usefully in later years.
Cheers,
Lou Herman lherman@hawaii.edu