U.S. flag An official website of the United States government.
Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

i

Temporal variation in the vocal behaviour of southern right whales in the Auckland Islands, New Zealand



Details

  • Journal Title:
    Royal Society Open Science
  • Personal Author:
  • NOAA Program & Office:
  • Description:
    Autonomous recorders are frequently used for examining vocal behaviour of animals, and are particularly effective in remote habitats. Southern right whales are known to have an extensive acoustic repertoire. A recorder was moored at the isolated sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands for a year to examine whether the acoustic behaviour of southern right whales differed seasonally and throughout the day at their main calving ground in New Zealand. Recordings were made in each month except June, and vocalizations were audible in all months with recordings except January. A total of 35 487 calls were detected, of which upcalls were the most common (11 623). Call rate peaked in August (288 ± 5.9 [s.e.] calls/hour) and July (194 ± 8.3). Vocal behaviour varied diurnally with highest call rates detected at dusk and night, consistent with the concept that upcalls function primarily as contact calls. Zero-inflated model results confirmed that seasonal variation was the most important factor for explaining differences in vocal behaviour. An automated detector designed to expedite the analysis process for North Atlantic right whales correctly identified 80% of upcalls, although false detections were frequent, particularly when call rates were low. This study is the first to attempt year-round monitoring of southern right whale presence in New Zealand.
  • Keywords:
  • Source:
    Royal Society Open Science, 6(3), 181487
  • DOI:
  • ISSN:
    2054-5703
  • Format:
    PDF
  • Publisher:
    The Royal Society
  • Document Type:
    Journal Article
  • License:
  • Rights Information:
    CC BY
  • Compliance:
    Library
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:ee00f7c558fc977ead3a51b2f1d7e66c14414995c3b4c0d4ab3494ec00e0f132644a01ec3352343aa44de2245b4f4cde5e1a7fa9fa841989541bff95667923a6
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 1.06 MB ]
PREVIOUS
ON THIS PAGE
Details
The NOAA IR serves as an archival repository of NOAA-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other information authored or co-authored by NOAA or funded partners. As a repository, the NOAA IR retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.
BACK TO TOP