Using identity calls to detect structure in acoustic datasets

Hersh, Taylor A.; Gero, Shane; Rendell, Luke; Whitehead, Hal

doi:10.1111/2041-210x.13644

Cited by 13 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 24 publications

(70 reference statements)

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“…To delineate vocal clans across social units and groups, we compared coda repertoires using the identity call method, IDcall [ 25 ] to identify characteristic coda types, termed ‘identity codas’ (i.e. coda types that are used consistently by one set of repertoires and rarely by others).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Codas were first separated according to their number of clicks and then classified into types according to their absolute ICIs using parsimonious mixtures of multi-variate contaminated normal distributions (R package ‘ContaminatedMixt’) [ 42 ]. Vocal clans were then delineated based on differences in the presence and usage of identity coda types in repertoires [ 25 ]. We tested various combinations of the parameters of the IDcall method to show that our identification of vocal clans was robust to parameter variation (electronic supplementary material, table S1).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ocean nomads or island specialists? Culturally driven habitat partitioning contrasts in scale between geographically isolated sperm whale populations

et al. 2022

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The sperm whale ( Physeter macrocephalus ) is a deep-diving cetacean with a global distribution and a multi-leveled, culturally segregated, social structure. While sperm whales have previously been described as ‘ocean nomads’, this might not be universal. We conducted surveys of sperm whales along the Lesser Antilles to document the acoustic repertoires, movements and distributions of Eastern Caribbean (EC) sperm whale cultural groups (called vocal clans). In addition to documenting a potential third vocal clan in the EC, we found strong evidence of fine-scale habitat partitioning between vocal clans with scales of horizontal movements an order of magnitude smaller than from comparable studies on Eastern Tropical Pacific sperm whales. These results suggest that sperm whales can display cultural ecological specialization and habitat partitioning on flexible spatial scales according to local conditions and broadens our perception of the ecological flexibility of the species. This study highlights the importance of incorporating multiple temporal and spatial scales to understand the impact of culture on ecological adaptability, as well as the dangers of extrapolating results across geographical areas and cultural groups.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ocean nomads or island specialists? Culturally driven habitat partitioning contrasts in scale between geographically isolated sperm whale populations

et al. 2022

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“…All individuals identified on the same day were considered part of the same group if they had coordinated behavior and movement (Gero et al, 2014 ). Their codas were used to identify the group's vocal clan membership following methods by Hersh et al ( 2021 ) (see Vachon et al, 2022 ). The GPS position of our research vessel was assigned to a vocal clan for the length of the encounter: From the time, we first heard the characteristic echolocation clicks of sperm whales until we could not hear them or chose to leave the whales due to weather or logistical constraints (Whitehead, 2003 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinctive, fine‐scale distribution of Eastern Caribbean sperm whale vocal clans reflects island fidelity rather than environmental variables

Vachon

Eguiguren

Rendell

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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Environmental variables are often the primary drivers of species' distributions as they define their niche. However, individuals, or groups of individuals, may sometimes adopt a limited range within this larger suitable habitat as a result of social and cultural processes. This is the case for Eastern Caribbean sperm whales. While environmental variables are reasonably successful in describing the general distribution of sperm whales in the region, individuals from different cultural groups have distinct distributions around the Lesser Antilles islands. Using data collected over 2 years of dedicated surveys in the Eastern Caribbean, we conducted habitat modeling and habitat suitability analyses to investigate the mechanisms responsible for such fine‐scale distribution patterns. Vocal clan‐specific models were dramatically more successful at predicting distribution than general species models, showing how a failure to incorporate social factors can impede accurate predictions. Habitat variation between islands did not explain vocal clan distributions, suggesting that cultural group segregation in the Eastern Caribbean sperm whale is driven by traditions of site/island fidelity (most likely maintained through conformism and homophily) rather than habitat type specialization. Our results provide evidence for the key role of cultural knowledge in shaping habitat use of sperm whales within suitable environmental conditions and highlight the importance of cultural factors in shaping sperm whale ecology. We recommend that social and cultural information be incorporated into conservation and management as culture can segregate populations on fine spatial scales in the absence of environmental variability.

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“…An analogous method of analyzing and displaying acoustic data has the potential to be similarly useful for calling animals [14]. The IDcall routine (summarized in Fig 1) uses multivariate information on calls that are grouped into repertoires.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Posterior probabilities of membership of repertoires in acoustic clades

Whitehead

Hersh

2022

PLoS ONE

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Recordings of calls may be used to assess population structure for acoustic species. This can be particularly effective if there are identity calls, produced nearly exclusively by just one population segment. The identity call method, IDcall, classifies calls into types using contaminated mixture models, and then clusters repertoires of calls into identity clades (potential population segments) using identity calls that are characteristic of the repertoires in each identity clade. We show how to calculate the Bayesian posterior probabilities that each repertoire is a member of each identity clade, and display this information as a stacked bar graph. This methodology (IDcallPP) is introduced using the output of IDcall but could easily be adapted to estimate posterior probabilities of clade membership when acoustic clades are delineated using other methods. This output is similar to that of the STRUCTURE software which uses molecular genetic data to assess population structure and has become a standard in conservation genetics. The technique introduced here should be a valuable asset to those who use acoustic data to address evolution, ecology, or conservation, and creates a methodological and conceptual bridge between geneticists and acousticians who aim to assess population structure.

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Using identity calls to detect structure in acoustic datasets

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Cited by 13 publications

References 24 publications

Ocean nomads or island specialists? Culturally driven habitat partitioning contrasts in scale between geographically isolated sperm whale populations

Ocean nomads or island specialists? Culturally driven habitat partitioning contrasts in scale between geographically isolated sperm whale populations

Distinctive, fine‐scale distribution of Eastern Caribbean sperm whale vocal clans reflects island fidelity rather than environmental variables

Posterior probabilities of membership of repertoires in acoustic clades

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