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Social calls in humpback whale mother-calf groups off Sainte Marie breeding ground (Madagascar, Indian Ocean)

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) use vocalizations during diverse social interactions or activities such as foraging or mating. Unlike songs produced only by males, social calls are produced by all types of individuals (adult males and females, juveniles and calves). Several studies have des...

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Autores principales: Saloma, Anjara, Ratsimbazafindranahaka, Maevatiana N., Martin, Mathilde, Andrianarimisa, Aristide, Huetz, Chloé, Adam, Olivier, Charrier, Isabelle
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9390327/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35990903
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13785
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author Saloma, Anjara
Ratsimbazafindranahaka, Maevatiana N.
Martin, Mathilde
Andrianarimisa, Aristide
Huetz, Chloé
Adam, Olivier
Charrier, Isabelle
author_facet Saloma, Anjara
Ratsimbazafindranahaka, Maevatiana N.
Martin, Mathilde
Andrianarimisa, Aristide
Huetz, Chloé
Adam, Olivier
Charrier, Isabelle
author_sort Saloma, Anjara
collection PubMed
description Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) use vocalizations during diverse social interactions or activities such as foraging or mating. Unlike songs produced only by males, social calls are produced by all types of individuals (adult males and females, juveniles and calves). Several studies have described social calls in the humpback whale’s breeding and the feeding grounds and from different geographic areas. We aimed to investigate for the first time the vocal repertoire of humpback whale mother-calf groups during the breeding season off Sainte Marie island, Madagascar, South Western Indian Ocean using data collected in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017. We recorded social calls using Acousonde tags deployed on the mother or the calf in mother-calf groups. A total of 21 deployments were analyzed. We visually and aurally identified 30 social call types and classified them into five categories: low, medium, high-frequency sounds, amplitude-modulated sounds, and pulsed sounds. The aural-visual classifications have been validated using random forest (RF) analyses. Low-frequency sounds constituted 46% of all social calls, mid-frequency 35%, and high frequency 10%. Amplitude-modulated sounds constituted 8% of all vocalizations, and pulsed sounds constituted 1%. While some social call types seemed specific to our study area, others presented similarities with social calls described in other geographic areas, on breeding and foraging grounds, and during migrating routes. Among the call types described in this study, nine call types were also found in humpback whale songs recorded in the same region. The 30 call types highlight the diversity of the social calls recorded in mother-calf groups and thus the importance of acoustic interactions in the relationships between the mother and her calf and between the mother-calf pair and escorts.
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spelling pubmed-93903272022-08-20 Social calls in humpback whale mother-calf groups off Sainte Marie breeding ground (Madagascar, Indian Ocean) Saloma, Anjara Ratsimbazafindranahaka, Maevatiana N. Martin, Mathilde Andrianarimisa, Aristide Huetz, Chloé Adam, Olivier Charrier, Isabelle PeerJ Animal Behavior Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) use vocalizations during diverse social interactions or activities such as foraging or mating. Unlike songs produced only by males, social calls are produced by all types of individuals (adult males and females, juveniles and calves). Several studies have described social calls in the humpback whale’s breeding and the feeding grounds and from different geographic areas. We aimed to investigate for the first time the vocal repertoire of humpback whale mother-calf groups during the breeding season off Sainte Marie island, Madagascar, South Western Indian Ocean using data collected in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017. We recorded social calls using Acousonde tags deployed on the mother or the calf in mother-calf groups. A total of 21 deployments were analyzed. We visually and aurally identified 30 social call types and classified them into five categories: low, medium, high-frequency sounds, amplitude-modulated sounds, and pulsed sounds. The aural-visual classifications have been validated using random forest (RF) analyses. Low-frequency sounds constituted 46% of all social calls, mid-frequency 35%, and high frequency 10%. Amplitude-modulated sounds constituted 8% of all vocalizations, and pulsed sounds constituted 1%. While some social call types seemed specific to our study area, others presented similarities with social calls described in other geographic areas, on breeding and foraging grounds, and during migrating routes. Among the call types described in this study, nine call types were also found in humpback whale songs recorded in the same region. The 30 call types highlight the diversity of the social calls recorded in mother-calf groups and thus the importance of acoustic interactions in the relationships between the mother and her calf and between the mother-calf pair and escorts. PeerJ Inc. 2022-08-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9390327/ /pubmed/35990903 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13785 Text en © 2022 Saloma et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Animal Behavior
Saloma, Anjara
Ratsimbazafindranahaka, Maevatiana N.
Martin, Mathilde
Andrianarimisa, Aristide
Huetz, Chloé
Adam, Olivier
Charrier, Isabelle
Social calls in humpback whale mother-calf groups off Sainte Marie breeding ground (Madagascar, Indian Ocean)
title Social calls in humpback whale mother-calf groups off Sainte Marie breeding ground (Madagascar, Indian Ocean)
title_full Social calls in humpback whale mother-calf groups off Sainte Marie breeding ground (Madagascar, Indian Ocean)
title_fullStr Social calls in humpback whale mother-calf groups off Sainte Marie breeding ground (Madagascar, Indian Ocean)
title_full_unstemmed Social calls in humpback whale mother-calf groups off Sainte Marie breeding ground (Madagascar, Indian Ocean)
title_short Social calls in humpback whale mother-calf groups off Sainte Marie breeding ground (Madagascar, Indian Ocean)
title_sort social calls in humpback whale mother-calf groups off sainte marie breeding ground (madagascar, indian ocean)
topic Animal Behavior
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9390327/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35990903
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13785
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