Beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) acoustic foraging behavior and applications for long term monitoring.

ABSTRACT: Cook Inlet, Alaska, is home to an endangered and declining population of 279 belugas (Delphinapterus leucas). Recovery efforts highlight a paucity of basic ecological knowledge, impeding the correct assessment of threats and the development of recovery actions. In particular, information on diet and foraging habitat is very limited for this population. Passive acoustic monitoring has proven to be an efficient approach to monitor beluga distribution and seasonal occurrence. Identifying acoustic foraging behavior could help address the current gap in information on diet and foraging habitat. To address this conservation challenge, eight belugas from a comparative, healthy population in Bristol Bay, Alaska, were instrumented with a multi-sensor tag (DTAG), a satellite tag, and a stomach tempe

SUBMITTER: Castellote M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8631677 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature