Some things never change: multi-decadal stability in humpback whale calling repertoire on Southeast Alaskan foraging grounds.

ABSTRACT: Investigating long term trends in acoustic communication is essential for understanding the role of sound in social species. Humpback whales are an acoustically plastic species known for producing rapidly-evolving song and a suite of non-song vocalizations ("calls") containing some call types that exhibit short-term stability. By comparing the earliest known acoustic recordings of humpback whales in Southeast Alaska (from the 1970's) with recordings collected in the 1990's, 2000's, and 2010's, we investigated the long-term repertoire stability of calls on Southeast Alaskan foraging grounds. Of the sixteen previously described humpback whale call types produced in Southeast Alaska, twelve were detected in both 1976 and 2012, indicating stability over a 36-year time period; eight call types

SUBMITTER: Fournet MEH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6160409 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature