Frozen verses: Antarctic minke whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) call predominantly during austral winter.

ABSTRACT: The recent identification of the bio-duck call as Antarctic minke whale (AMW) vocalization allows the use of passive acoustic monitoring to retrospectively investigate year-round spatial-temporal patterns in minke whale occurrence in ice-covered areas. Here, we present an analysis of AMW occurrence patterns based on a 9-year passive acoustic dataset (2008-2016) from 21 locations throughout the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean (Weddell Sea). AMWs were detected acoustically at all mooring locations from May to December, with the highest presence between August and November (bio-duck calls present at more than 80% of days). At the southernmost recording locations, the bio-duck call was present up to 10 months of the year. Substantial inter-annual variation in the seasonality of vocal act

SUBMITTER: Filun D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7657898 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature