A Multi-Dimensional Examination of Foraging Habitat Use by Gray Whales Using Long Time-Series and Acoustics Data.

ABSTRACT: Gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) show high site fidelity to feeding and breeding areas. The whales' annual cycle could be learned or be driven by factors such as prey abundance or ocean conditions. Long-term line transect and photo-identification data were analyzed to consider intra- and inter- annual patterns of habitat use and the underlying drivers for foraging areas in Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia. Time series, autocorrelation and weighted means analysis were used on the 20-years of data (1997-2016). A generalized additive model showed that whale use of the area was most strongly influenced by the maximum number of whales, and the date of its occurrence, recorded the previous year. This maximum, when it occurred in the summer, impacted the whale numbers for up to four su

SUBMITTER: Burnham RE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9597834 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature