Preferred shallow-water nursery sites provide acoustic crypsis to southern right whale mother-calf pairs.

ABSTRACT: Adaptations to sound production behaviour can reduce the detectability of animal signals by eavesdroppers in a phenomenon known as acoustic crypsis. We propose that acoustic crypsis can include selection of locations that affect how sound transmits through the environment: habitats with poor acoustic propagation can minimize the range of detectability of animal signals. We investigated the potential for the preferred habitats of southern right whales to confer acoustic crypsis. We modelled acoustic propagation and range of detection of calls from southern right whales in the shallow, sandy, near shore waters where mothers and calves aggregate during the calving season. At three nursery sites across three continents in the southern hemisphere, results showed that the depth at which right wh

SUBMITTER: Zeh JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9115009 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature