Understanding the intentional acoustic behavior of humpback whales: A production-based approach

Cazau, Dorian; Adam, Olivier; Laitman, Jeffrey T.; Reidenberg, Joy S.

doi:10.1121/1.4816403

Cited by 28 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…However, there are structural homologies between the vocal anatomy of terrestrial mammals and mysticete whales (Reidenberg & Laitman 2007), and the spectral structure of mysticete whale calls is consistent with observations of formants in terrestrial mammals (Mercado et al 2010, Cazau et al 2013. Harmonics are whole-number multiples of the fundamental frequency of a signal, and typically decrease in amplitude with increasing frequency.…”

Section: Formant Measurementssupporting

confidence: 77%

Calls of North Atlantic right whales Eubalaena glacialis contain information on individual identity and age class

McCordic¹,

Root‐Gutteridge²,

Cusano³

et al. 2016

Endang. Species. Res.

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Passive acoustic monitoring is a powerful tool that allows remote detection of marine mammals through their vocalizations. While call detection provides information on species presence, additional information may be contained within the vocalizations that could provide more information regarding the demographics and/or number of individuals in a particular area based on passive acoustic detections. The North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis produces a stereotyped upswept call, termed the upcall, that is thought to function as a long-distance contact call in this species. As such, the call is likely to contain cues providing information about the individual producing it. The goal of this study was to test whether the right whale upcall could potentially encode information related to the identity and age of the caller. Using upcalls recorded from 14 known individuals through non-invasive suction cup archival acoustic tags, we demonstrate that the upcall does contain sufficient information to discriminate individual identity and age class, with average classification levels of 72.6 and 86.1%, respectively. Parameters measured from the fundamental frequency, duration, and formant structure were most important for discrimination among individuals. This study is the first step in demonstrating the feasibility of obtaining additional data from passive acoustic monitoring to aid in the conservation efforts for this highly endangered species.

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Section: Formant Measurementssupporting

confidence: 77%

Calls of North Atlantic right whales Eubalaena glacialis contain information on individual identity and age class

McCordic¹,

Root‐Gutteridge²,

Cusano³

et al. 2016

Endang. Species. Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…If this hypothesis is true, a long‐term density increase can thus cause a long‐term decrease in the call source levels, leading to the observed decline in the call peak frequency (McDonald et al, ). The potential link between call frequency and call intensity has yet to be rigorously tested, given that the mechanisms of large‐whale sound emission are still an open question (Adam et al, ; Cazau et al, ; Dziak et al, ; Reidenberg & Laitman, ), though this hypothesis would fit the worldwide character of the phenomenon. Here we observe that the decline rate (Hz/year) differs among species and subspecies, from 0.22% to 0.55%, which, as suggested by McDonald et al (), could reflect a different rate of population recovery for each subspecies.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long‐Term and Seasonal Changes of Large Whale Call Frequency in the Southern Indian Ocean

et al. 2018

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In the past decades, in the context of a changing ocean submitted to an increasing human activity, a progressive decrease in the frequencies (pitch) of blue whale vocalizations has been observed worldwide. Its causes, of natural or anthropogenic nature, are still unclear. Based on 7 years of continuous acoustic recordings at widespread sites in the southern Indian Ocean, we show that this observation stands for five populations of large whales. The frequency of selected units of vocalizations of fin, Antarctic, and pygmy blue whales has steadily decreased at a rate of a few tenths of hertz per year since 2002. In addition to this interannual frequency decrease, blue whale vocalizations display seasonal frequency shifts. We show that these intra‐annual shifts correlate with seasonal changes in the ambient noise near their call frequency. This ambient noise level, in turn, shows a strong correlation with the seasonal presence of icebergs, which are one of the main sources of oceanic noise in the Southern Hemisphere. Although cause‐and‐effect relationships are difficult to ascertain, wide‐ranging changes in the acoustic environment seem to have a strong impact on the vocal behavior of large baleen whales. Seasonal frequency shifts may be due to short‐term changes in the ambient noise, and the interannual frequency decline to long‐term changes in the acoustic properties of the ocean and/or in postwhaling changes in whale abundances.

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“…Humpback whales produce sounds in ways that differ substantially from how dolphins, belugas, and orcas produce sounds, and that are more similar to vocal production by terrestrial mammals (Cazau, Adam, Laitman, & Reidenberg, 2013;Reidenberg & Laitman, 2007). The sounds produced by humpback whales are also subjectively quite different from those used by belugas or orcas.…”

Section: Convergence In Humpback Whale Singingmentioning

confidence: 95%

Imitating Sounds: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding Vocal Imitation

Mercado¹,

Mantell²,

Pfordresher³

2014

CCBR

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Vocal imitation is often described as a specialized form of learning that facilitates social communication and that involves less cognitively sophisticated mechanisms than more "perceptually opaque" types of imitation. Here, we present an alternative perspective. Considering current evidence from adult mammals, we note that vocal imitation often does not lead to learning and can involve a wide range of cognitive processes. We further suggest that sound imitation capacities may have evolved in certain mammals, such as cetaceans and humans, to enhance both the perception of ongoing actions and the prediction of future events, rather than to facilitate mate attraction or the formation of social bonds. The ability of adults to voluntarily imitate sounds is better described as a cognitive skill than as a communicative learning mechanism. Sound imitation abilities are gradually acquired through practice and require the coordination of multiple perceptual-motor and cognitive mechanisms for representing and generating sounds. Understanding these mechanisms is critical to explaining why relatively few mammals are capable of flexibly imitating sounds, and why individuals vary in their ability to imitate sounds. Keywords: mimicry; copying; social learning; singing; emulation; imitatible; convergence; imitativenessIn his seminal text, Habitat and Instinct, Lloyd Morgan (1896, p. 166) describes two general kinds of imitation: instinctive imitation and intelligent or voluntary imitation. The examples he provides of intelligent imitation mostly involve reproducing sounds-a child copies words used by his companions, a mockingbird imitates the songs of 32 other bird species, a jay imitates the neighing of a horse, and so on. In fact, most of the examples of "imitation proper" that Morgan provides consist of birds reproducing the sounds of other species. Similarly, Romanes (1884) focuses almost exclusively on reports of birds imitating songs, music, and speech in his discussion of imitation. These classic portrayals of vocal reproductions as providing the best and clearest examples of imitation stand in stark contrast to current psychological discussions of imitation, which often classify examples such as those given by Romanes and Morgan as non-imitative performances that merely resemble actual imitation (Byrne, 2002;Heyes, 1996). When did phenomena that were once considered archetypal examples of voluntary imitation transform into a footnote of modern cognitive theories? Was some discovery made that fundamentally changed our scientific understanding of the processes underlying vocal imitation? Have psychologists or biologists succeeded in explaining what vocal imitation is and how it works to the point where little can be gained from further study? Or, have theoretical assumptions led scientists to underestimate the cognitive mechanisms required for an individual to be able to flexibly imitate sounds?In the present article, we attempt to identify what exactly vocal imitation entails, and to assess whether current explanatory fr...

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Understanding the intentional acoustic behavior of humpback whales: A production-based approach

Cited by 28 publications

References 18 publications

Calls of North Atlantic right whales Eubalaena glacialis contain information on individual identity and age class

Calls of North Atlantic right whales Eubalaena glacialis contain information on individual identity and age class

Long‐Term and Seasonal Changes of Large Whale Call Frequency in the Southern Indian Ocean

Imitating Sounds: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding Vocal Imitation

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