Résumé
Codas, which are patterned series of clicks, were recorded from female and immature sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in a number of locations around the South Pacific Ocean and in the Caribbean Sea. Using K-means cluster analysis, 3,644 codas were categorized based on the number of clicks and their patterning. There were 30 resulting types of coda. The numbers of codas of the different types recorded were used to construct repertoires for each recording session, day, group of whales, place, area, and ocean. Strong group-specific dialects, which seem to persist over periods of years, were apparent, overlaid on weaker geographical variation. Significant differences in repertoire were found between the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean. Sperm whales now join killer whales (Orcinus orca) as the only cetacean species in which dialects (differences in vocal repertoire among neighboring, potentially interacting groups) have been found.
| Langue d'origine | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (de-à) | 277-285 |
| Nombre de pages | 9 |
| Journal | Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology |
| Volume | 40 |
| Numéro de publication | 5 |
| DOI | |
| Statut de publication | Published - mai 1997 |
Note bibliographique
Funding Information:Acknowledgements We are very grateful to Susan Dufault who analyzed the fluke identification photographs, and to all the crew who helped collect the data, especially: Simon Childerhouse, Kelly Freemantle, Nathalie Jaquet and Deborah McCutchen. The study was funded by the National Geographic Society, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and Cetacean Society International. Equipment was donated and loaned by John Fentress, Satlantic, Benthos Ltd and Ilford Canada. We thank R. Capranica for use of the spectral analyzer. This work was part of a NSERC post-doctoral fellowship awarded to LW and carried out under Chris Clark at Cornell University. The following organizations kindly gave us permission to work in their waters and assisted in other ways: the Armada of Ecuador, the Galápagos National Park Service, the Charles Darwin Station, the Haut-Commissariat de la Republique en Polynesie Franc¸ aise Bureau d’Etudes, the Department of Conservation New Zealand, and the Armada of Chile. We thank Peter Tyack and two anonymous reviewers for their excellent comments on the manuscript.
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Animal Science and Zoology