 |
| Florence Erbs |
| Laboratory of
Applied Bioacoustics (LAB) Rambla Exposició, 24 | 08800 Vilanova i la Geltrú Barcelona, Spain Office +34 93 896 72 27 |
| florence.erbs@upc.edu
lab.upc.edu, listentothedeep.com |
Dear colleagues,
My co-authors and I are pleased to announce the publication of our
new article on bowhead whale songs:
Erbs, F., van der Schaar, M., Weissenberger, J. et al.
Contribution to unravel variability in bowhead whale songs and
better understand its ecological significance. Sci Rep 11,
168 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80220-5
Abstract
Since the first studies on bowhead whale singing behaviour, song
variations have been consistently reported. However, there has
been little discussion regarding variability in bowhead whale
singing display and its ecological significance. Unlike the better
studied humpback whales, bowhead whales do not appear to share
songs at population level, but several studies have reported song
sharing within clusters of animals. Over the winter season
2013–2014, in an unstudied wintering ground off Northeast
Greenland, 13 song groups sharing similar hierarchical structure
and units were identified. Unit types were assessed through
multidimensional maps, showing well separated clusters
corresponding to manually labelled units, and revealing the
presence of unit subtypes. Units presented contrasting levels of
variability over their acoustic parameters, suggesting that
bowhead whales keep consistency in some units while using a
continuum in values of frequency, duration and modulation
parameters for other unit types. Those findings emphasise the need
to account for variability in song analysis to better understand
the behavioural ecology of this endangered species. Additionally,
shifting from song toward units or phrase-based analysis, as it
has been suggested for humpback whales, offers the opportunity to
identify and track similarities in songs over temporal and
geographical scales relevant to population monitoring.
The open-access article can be downloaded from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-80220-5
Please feel free to contact me (florence.erbs@upc.edu) if you have
any questions.
Best wishes,
Florence
|
| Florence Erbs |
| Laboratory of
Applied Bioacoustics (LAB) Rambla Exposició, 24 | 08800 Vilanova i la Geltrú Barcelona, Spain Office +34 93 896 72 27 |
| florence.erbs@upc.edu
lab.upc.edu, listentothedeep.com |
