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Distinctive, fine‐scale distribution of Eastern Caribbean sperm whale vocal clans reflects island fidelity rather than environmental variables

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Date
03/11/2022
Author
Vachon, Felicia
Eguiguren, Ana
Rendell, Luke
Gero, Shane
Whitehead, Hal
Keywords
Caribbean
Cetacean
Conservation
Culture
Habitat modeling
Site fidelity
Sperm whale
GC Oceanography
QL Zoology
DAS
MCC
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Abstract
Environmental variables are often the primary drivers of species' distributions as they define their niche. However, individuals, or groups of individuals, may sometimes adopt a limited range within this larger suitable habitat as a result of social and cultural processes. This is the case for Eastern Caribbean sperm whales. While environmental variables are reasonably successful in describing the general distribution of sperm whales in the region, individuals from different cultural groups have distinct distributions around the Lesser Antilles islands. Using data collected over 2 years of dedicated surveys in the Eastern Caribbean, we conducted habitat modeling and habitat suitability analyses to investigate the mechanisms responsible for such fine‐scale distribution patterns. Vocal clan‐specific models were dramatically more successful at predicting distribution than general species models, showing how a failure to incorporate social factors can impede accurate predictions. Habitat variation between islands did not explain vocal clan distributions, suggesting that cultural group segregation in the Eastern Caribbean sperm whale is driven by traditions of site/island fidelity (most likely maintained through conformism and homophily) rather than habitat type specialization. Our results provide evidence for the key role of cultural knowledge in shaping habitat use of sperm whales within suitable environmental conditions and highlight the importance of cultural factors in shaping sperm whale ecology. We recommend that social and cultural information be incorporated into conservation and management as culture can segregate populations on fine spatial scales in the absence of environmental variability.
Citation
Vachon , F , Eguiguren , A , Rendell , L , Gero , S & Whitehead , H 2022 , ' Distinctive, fine‐scale distribution of Eastern Caribbean sperm whale vocal clans reflects island fidelity rather than environmental variables ' , Ecology and Evolution , vol. 12 , no. 11 , e9449 . https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9449
Publication
Ecology and Evolution
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9449
ISSN
2045-7758
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Description
Funding: This research would not have been possible without support from our partners: CARIMAM and the University of the West Indies, and funders: the National Geographic Society (NGS-62320R-19-2), the AGOA Sanctuary, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Animal Behavior Society.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/26311

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