Hello all,My co-authors and I are pleased to announce the publication of our paper on cue rates (calling rates) in migrating bowhead whales:
Blackwell SB, AM Thode, AS Conrad, MC Ferguson, CL Berchok, KM Stafford, TA Marques, and KH Kim. 2021. Estimating acoustic cue rates in bowhead whales, Balaena mysticetus, during their fall migration through the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 149(5):3611-3625.
Abstract: Eight years of passive acoustic data (2007–2014)
from the Beaufort Sea were used to estimate the mean cue rate (calling rate) of
individual bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) during their fall
migration along the North Slope of Alaska. Calls detected on directional acoustic
recorders (DASARs) were triangulated to provide estimates of locations at times
of call production, which were then translated into call densities (calls/hour/km2). Various assumptions were used to convert call
density into animal cue rates, including the time for whales to cross the
arrays of acoustic recorders, the population size, the fraction of the
migration corridor missed by the localizing array system, and the fraction of
the seasonal migration missed because recorders were retrieved before the end
of the migration. Taking these
uncertainties into account in various combinations yielded up to 351 cue rate
estimates, which summarize to a median of 1.3 calls/whale/h
and an interquartile range of 0.5–5.4 calls/whale/h.
The paper can be obtained at the following link:
Or by email request:
Best,
Susanna
Susanna B. Blackwell, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, Greeneridge Sciences, Inc.
Research Associate, UC Santa Cruz