The call repertoire of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) on a Newfoundland foraging ground (2015, 2016) with comparison to a Hawaiian breeding ground (1982, 1982)
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Date
2019-09-30
Authors
Epp, Mikala
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Abstract
Understanding the vocal repertoire of a species can help researchers understand many aspects of its ecology. As acoustic communication is often the most effective form of communication in aquatic environments, many marine mammals rely on vocalizations for various aspects of their lives. Therefore, acoustic studies have become a crucial tool to answer many ecological questions about marine mammals and to inform conservation and management, particularly as marine mammals spend much of their lives underwater, making them difficult to study visually. Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are a highly vocal species for which passive acoustics have been used to extensively study their song, and, to a lesser extent, their calls. Calls have been studied on a small number of foraging grounds and migration routes, but many regions are understudied, for example, northeast Newfoundland. Therefore, the goals of this thesis were to characterize the call repertoire of northeast Newfoundland humpback whales during July-August over two years (2015, 2016), and to identify whether five call types that have been previously described (i.e., swops, droplets, teepees, growls, whups) were present on both the Newfoundland foraging ground in 2015 and on a Hawaiian breeding ground from 1981-82. Twenty-two potential call types in four broad classes were qualitatively identified in the Newfoundland repertoire over the two years, with 12 of the call types qualitatively determined to be present in both years. The five previously described call types appear to be present in both Newfoundland years as well as in the Hawaiian recordings, though some differences in characteristics were present. These findings suggest that the Newfoundland humpback whales have an extensive and possibly stable repertoire as found in other regions. They also suggest that some of the humpback repertoire could be both fixed and innate, which gives clues as to the function of some of the calls and points towards potential candidate calls for global passive acoustic monitoring efforts.
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Humpback whale, Acoustics, Newfoundland, Repertoire