Multilevel Societies of Female Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in the Atlantic and Pacific: Why Are They So Different?

Whitehead, Hal; Antunes, Ricardo; Gero, Shane; Wong, Sarah N. P.; Engelhaupt, Daniel; Rendell, Luke

doi:10.1007/s10764-012-9598-z

Cited by 101 publications

(148 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Female sperm whales aggregate into units of both related and unrelated individuals (e.g. Ortega-Ortiz et al 2012) of different age classes, forming long-term multilevel associations (Whitehead 2003, Whitehead et al 2012. As in elephants, which have a similar social structure, a loss of older females from these units may have fragmented these associations and caused a loss of cultural knowledge such as predator evasion tactics and the location of occasional feeding grounds (Whitehead 2003, McComb et al 2011.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

No evidence for recovery in the population of sperm whale bulls off Western Australia, 30 years post-whaling

Carroll¹,

Hedley²,

Bannister³

et al. 2014

Endang. Species. Res.

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The global sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus population has been protected from large-scale commercial whaling for > 25 yr, yet there is no clear evidence of recovery in any heavily exploited stock. This may indicate that whaling has long-term demographic effects on this species or that other endogenous or exogenous processes are inhibiting population growth. This study investigates the status of mature sperm bulls off Albany, Western Australia, a population reduced through whaling by 74% between 1955 and 1978. We conducted an aerial survey designed as far as possible to provide an index of abundance comparable with that derived from the whale 'spotter' planes employed by the Albany whaling company from 1968 to 1978, using the number of sperm bulls seen on each morning flight as a comparative index between bulls seen historically and in 2009. The mean number of sperm bulls seen on transect in 2009 was 2.43 (95% percentile interval [0.96, 6.08]); this increased to 3.38 (95% percentile interval [1.30, 7.60]) when sightings off transect were included. Both 2009 point estimates were lower than the mean (± SE) number seen in any of the years between 1968 and 1978, which ranged from 6.30 (±1.18) in 1976 to 12.45 (±1.83) in 1968. The lack of recovery in the population of bull sperm whales off Albany, despite full protection, is of concern and adds weight to the growing body of evidence that suggests that sperm whales may not be recovering effectively from past exploitation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

No evidence for recovery in the population of sperm whale bulls off Western Australia, 30 years post-whaling

Carroll¹,

Hedley²,

Bannister³

et al. 2014

Endang. Species. Res.

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“…Females, juveniles and calves of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), the largest of the toothed whales, also live in stable family units (Weilgart et al, 1996;Whitehead et al, 2012;Gero et al, 2008;Gero et al, 2013). They produce clicks composed of a rapid series of pulses both for echolocation and communication.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sperm whale codas may encode individuality as well as clan identity

Oliveira

Wahlberg

Silva

et al. 2016

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Sperm whales produce codas for communication that can be grouped into different types according to their temporal patterns. Codas have led researchers to propose that sperm whales belong to distinct cultural clans, but it is presently unclear if they also convey individual information. Coda clicks comprise a series of pulses and the delay between pulses is a function of organ size, and therefore body size, and so is one potential source of individual information. Another potential individual-specific parameter could be the inter-click intervals within codas. To test whether these parameters provide reliable individual cues, stereo-hydrophone acoustic tags (Dtags) were attached to five sperm whales of the Azores, recording a total of 802 codas. A discriminant function analysis was used to distinguish 288 5 Regular codas from four of the sperm whales and 183 3 Regular codas from two sperm whales. The results suggest that codas have consistent individual features in their inter-click intervals and inter-pulse intervals which may contribute to individual identification. Additionally, two whales produced different coda types in distinct foraging dive phases. Codas may therefore be used by sperm whales to convey information of identity as well as activity within a social group to a larger extent than previously assumed.

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“…This possibly indicates more frequent inter-oceanic movement in males than females (Lyrholm et al 1999). Non-genetic differences have also been found in social structure between female sperm whales from the Eastern Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, with grouping of family units and the formation of sympatric cultural clans occurring in the former but not in the latter (Whitehead et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Vocal clans of groups of females and immature offspring that share a repertoire of distinctive culturally determined vocalizations, have been found to be largely sympatric within the South Pacific Ocean (Rendell and Whitehead 2003), whilst sympatric cultural clans were not found in the North Atlantic (Whitehead et al 2012) and vocal clans off the coast of Japan and the Ogasawara Islands in the northwest Pacific were found to be geographically separate (Amano et al 2014). While there is no simple relationship between vocal dialects and maternal genetics, a comparison of mtDNA variation among vocal clans in the South Pacific indicated that vocal membership explains a larger amount of genetic variation than geographical location .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographical variation in the body size of adult female sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) – an example of McNab’s resource rule?

et al. 2016

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Abstract:This study investigates possible regional variations in size composition of adult female sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) using data from 3302 pregnant individuals taken on Soviet whaling expeditions to the Southern Hemisphere 1961Hemisphere /62-1974. A general linear model (GLM) was used to take the covariates of expedition, latitude and ocean basin into account. The average body size decreased from south to north in each ocean basin, with the biggest decrease (about 200 cm) in the Indian Ocean; followed by the Pacific Ocean (about 110 cm), and the Atlantic Ocean (about 80 cm). Independent data confirm the small size of female/immature sperm whales in some tropical areas of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The mechanism responsible for this geographic variation in sperm whale growth could reflect culturally transmitted differences in foraging behaviour between clans of female/immature sperm whales in response to differing availabilities of prey resources by geographical regionMcNab's resource rule. However there is little available information for such a mechanism to be readily identifiable. Although data for oceanic squids (sperm whale's main source of food) are lacking, there is evidence that the individual sizes of neritic species are positively correlated with latitude. Hence feeding in equatorial regions may be energetically more demanding due to smaller individual prey size, with consequent effects on growth rate.

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Multilevel Societies of Female Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in the Atlantic and Pacific: Why Are They So Different?

Cited by 101 publications

References 68 publications

No evidence for recovery in the population of sperm whale bulls off Western Australia, 30 years post-whaling

No evidence for recovery in the population of sperm whale bulls off Western Australia, 30 years post-whaling

Sperm whale codas may encode individuality as well as clan identity

Geographical variation in the body size of adult female sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) – an example of McNab’s resource rule?

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