This is the abstract:
Animals aggregate to obtain a range of fitness benefits, but a common cost of
aggregation is increased detection by predators. Here we show that, in contrast to visual
and chemical signallers, aggregated acoustic signallers need not face higher predator
encounter rate. This is the case for prey groups that synchronize vocal behaviour but
have negligible signal time-overlap in their vocalizations. Beaked whales tagged with
sound and movement loggers exemplify this scenario: they precisely synchronize group
vocal and diving activity but produce non-overlapping short acoustic cues. They
combine this with acoustic hiding when within reach of eavesdropping predators to
effectively annul the cost of aggregation for predation risk from their main predator, the
killer whale. We generalize this finding in a mathematical model that predicts the key
parameters that social vocal prey, which are widespread across taxa and ecosystems,
can use to mitigate detection by eavesdropping predators.
Cheers, we hope you enjoy seeing the amazing coordinated behaviour of beaked whales!