St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Pilot whales attracted to killer whales sounds : acoustically-mediated interspecific interactions in cetaceans

Thumbnail
View/Open
e52201.pdf (292.4Kb)
Date
26/12/2012
Author
Curé, Charlotte
Antunes, Ricardo Nuno
Samarra, Filipa Isabel Pereira
Alves, Ana Catarina De Carvalho
Visser, Fleur
Kvadsheim, Petter H.
Miller, Patrick
Keywords
Pilot whales
Killer whales
Acoustically-Mediated Interspecific Interactions
Vocalizations
Multi-sensor tag
Q Science
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Altmetrics DOI Statistics
Abstract
In cetaceans’ communities, interactions between individuals of different species are often observed in the wild. Yet, due to methodological and technical challenges very little is known about the mediation of these interactions and their effect on cetaceans’ behavior. Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are a highly vocal species and can be both food competitors and potential predators of many other cetaceans. Thus, the interception of their vocalizations by unintended cetacean receivers may be particularly important in mediating interspecific interactions. To address this hypothesis, we conducted playbacks of killer whale vocalizations recorded during herring-feeding activity to free-ranging long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas). Using a multi-sensor tag, we were able to track the whales and to monitor changes of their movements and social behavior in response to the playbacks. We demonstrated that the playback of killer whale sounds to pilot whales induced a clear increase in group size and a strong attraction of the animals towards the sound source. These findings provide the first experimental evidence that the interception of heterospecific vocalizations can mediate interactions between different cetacean species in previously unrecognized ways.
Citation
Curé , C , Antunes , R N , Samarra , F I P , Alves , A C D C , Visser , F , Kvadsheim , P H & Miller , P 2012 , ' Pilot whales attracted to killer whales sounds : acoustically-mediated interspecific interactions in cetaceans ' , PLoS ONE , vol. 7 , no. 12 , e52201 . https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052201
Publication
PLoS ONE
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052201
ISSN
1932-6203
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2012 Curé et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Description
This study was mainly funded by three naval organisations: the US Office of Naval Research, the Norwegian Ministry of Defense and the Netherlands Ministry of Defense. In addition, WWF-Norway, TOTAL Foundation and the Foundation Bleustein-Blanchet also contributed financially. Authors are employed by government (Norwegian Defense Research Establishment), independent no-profit (Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research and Kelp Marine Research), or academic (University of St. Andrews) research organisations. No authors are employed by naval organisations. The funders had no role in study design, data analysis, or preparation of the manuscript.
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/4134

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter