The relationship between the acoustic behaviour and surface activity of killer whales (Orcinus orca) that feed on herring (Clupea harengus)

Simon, Malene; McGregor, Peter K.; Ugarte, Fernando

doi:10.1007/s10211-007-0029-7

Cited by 54 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…As we had no recordings of Northern Residents or West Coast Transients at sampling rates higher than 96 kHz, we cannot rule-out the possibility that these whales also produce whistles entirely above 48 kHz. Nevertheless, as Icelandic and Norwegian killer whales have been suggested to form a separate ecotype due to their unique behavior (Simon et al, 2007) they may be under different selective pressures, which may explain these differences in whistle production. Further research is necessary to clarify what factors drive such intraspecific variation in killer whales, nevertheless, it emphasizes the importance of sampling different populations to infer species' whistle frequency parameters used in comparative studies.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Killer whales (Orcinus orca) produce ultrasonic whistles

Samarra

Deecke

Vinding

et al. 2010

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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This study reports that killer whales, the largest dolphin, produce whistles with the highest fundamental frequencies ever reported in a delphinid. Using wide-band acoustic sampling from both animal-attached (Dtag) and remotely deployed hydrophone arrays, ultrasonic whistles were detected in three Northeast Atlantic populations but not in two Northeast Pacific populations. These results are inconsistent with analyses suggesting a correlation of maximum frequency of whistles with body size in delphinids, indicate substantial intraspecific variation in whistle production in killer whales, and highlight the importance of appropriate acoustic sampling techniques when conducting comparative analyses of sound repertoires.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Killer whales (Orcinus orca) produce ultrasonic whistles

Samarra

Deecke

Vinding

et al. 2010

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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“…In the NE Atlantic, herring-eating killer whales off the coast of Norway and Iceland are highly vocal during feeding but mostly silent during traveling (Simon et al, 2007a;Samarra & Miller 2015a). Similä and Ugarte (1993) and Simon et al, (2007a) hypothesized that the increased production of calls during feeding may help whales coordinate their movements and/or to herd herring.…”

Section: Functions Of Killer Whale Soundsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similä and Ugarte (1993) and Simon et al, (2007a) hypothesized that the increased production of calls during feeding may help whales coordinate their movements and/or to herd herring. This hypothesis was supported by observed lower calling rates during feeding upon discards from fisheries, a non-cooperative feeding behaviour, in comparison to higher calling rates during cooperative 'carousel feeding ' (van Opzeeland et al, 2005).…”

Section: Functions Of Killer Whale Soundsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural evolution of killer whale calls: background, mechanisms and consequences

Filatova

Samarra

Deecke

et al. 2015

Behav

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Cultural evolution is a powerful process shaping behavioural phenotypes of many species including our own. Killer whales are one of the species with relatively well-studied vocal culture. Pods have distinct dialects comprising a mix of unique and shared call types; calves adopt the call repertoire of their matriline through social learning. We review different aspects of killer whale acoustic communication to provide insights into the cultural transmission and gene-culture co-evolution processes that produce the extreme diversity of group and population repertoires. We argue that the cultural evolution of killer whale calls is not a random process driven by steady error accumulation alone: temporal change occurs at different speeds in different components of killer whale repertoires, and constraints in call structure and horizontal transmission often degrade the phylogenetic signal. We discuss the implications from bird song and human linguistic studies, and propose several hypotheses of killer whale dialect evolution.

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“…The percussive tail slapping sounds, echolocation clicks and numerous pulsed calls make feeding an acoustically active time (Similä & Ugarte, 1993;Van Opzeeland et al, 2005;Simon et al, 2007), which may attract nearby groups of killer whales to a ball of herring that has already been brought to the surface. This may explain the sudden change in direction by the male here since focal tail slapping activity ensued suddenly after roughly 18 minutes of directional swimming following the turn.…”

Section: Oo06_327smentioning

confidence: 99%

Orchestration : the movement and vocal behavior of free-ranging Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca)

Shapiro¹

2008

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Studying the social and cultural transmission of behavior among animals helps to identify patterns of interaction and information content flowing between individuals. Killer whales are likely to acquire traits culturally based on their population-specific feeding behaviors and group-distinctive vocal repertoires. I used digital tags to explore the contributions of individual Norwegian killer whales to group carousel feeding and the relationships between vocal and non-vocal activity.Periods of tail slapping to incapacitate herring during feeding were characterized by elevated movement variability, heightened vocal activity and call types containing additional orientation cues. Tail slaps produced by tagged animals were identified using a rapid pitch change and occurred primarily within 20m of the surface. Two simultaneously tagged animals maneuvered similarly when tail slapping within 60s of one another, indicating that the position and composition of the herring ball influenced their behavior.Two types of behavioral sequence preceding the tight circling of carousel feeding were apparent. First, the animals engaged in periods of directional swimming. They were silent in 2 of 3 instances, suggesting they may have located other foraging groups by eavesdropping. Second, tagged animals made broad horizontal loops as they dove in a manner consistent with corralling. All 4 of these occasions were accompanied by vocal activity, indicating that this and tail slapping may benefit from social communication. No significant relationship between the call types and the actual movement measurements was found.Killer whale vocalizations traditionally have been classified into discrete call types. Using human speech processing techniques, I considered that calls are alternatively comprised of shared segments that can be recombined to form the stereotyped and variable repertoire. In a classification experiment, the characterization of calls using the whole call, a set of unshared segments, or a set of shared segments yielded equivalent performance. The shared segments required less information to parse the same vocalizations, suggesting a more parsimonious system of representation.This closer examination of the movements and vocalizations of Norwegian killer 3 whales, combined with future work on ontogeny and transmission, will inform our understanding of whether and how culture plays a role in achieving population-specific behaviors in this species. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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The relationship between the acoustic behaviour and surface activity of killer whales (Orcinus orca) that feed on herring (Clupea harengus)

Cited by 54 publications

References 33 publications

Killer whales (Orcinus orca) produce ultrasonic whistles

Killer whales (Orcinus orca) produce ultrasonic whistles

Cultural evolution of killer whale calls: background, mechanisms and consequences

Orchestration : the movement and vocal behavior of free-ranging Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca)

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