Beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) vocalizations and call classification from the eastern Beaufort Sea population
Date
06/2015Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Beluga whales, Delphinapterus leucas, have a graded call system; call types exist on a continuum making classification challenging. A description of vocalizations from the eastern Beaufort Sea beluga population during its spring migration are presented here, using both a non-parametric clas- sification tree analysis (CART), and a Random Forest analysis. Twelve frequency and duration measurements were made on 1019 calls recorded over 14 days off Icy Cape, Alaska, resulting in 34 identifiable call types with 83% agreement in classification for both CART and Random Forest analyses. This high level of agreement in classification, with an initial subjective classification of calls into 36 categories, demonstrates that the methods applied here provide a quantitative analysis of a graded call dataset. Further, as calls cannot be attributed to individuals using single sensor pas- sive acoustic monitoring efforts, these methods provide a comprehensive analysis of data where the influence of pseudo-replication of calls from individuals is unknown. This study is the first to describe the vocal repertoire of a beluga population using a robust and repeatable methodology. A baseline eastern Beaufort Sea beluga population repertoire is presented here, against which the call repertoire of other seasonally sympatric Alaskan beluga populations can be compared.
Citation
Garland , E C , Castellote , M & Berchok , C 2015 , ' Beluga whale ( Delphinapterus leucas ) vocalizations and call classification from the eastern Beaufort Sea population ' , Journal of the Acoustical Society of America , vol. 137 , no. 6 , pp. 3054-3067 . https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4919338
Publication
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0001-4966Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright (2015) Acoustical Society of America. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the Acoustical Society of America. The following article appeared as Beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) vocalizations and call classification from the eastern Beaufort Sea population Garland, E. C., Castellote, M. & Berchok, C. Jun 2015 In : Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 137, 6, p. 3054-3067 and may be found at http://scitation.aip.org/content/asa/journal/jasa/137/6/10.1121/1.4919338
Description
Funding was provided by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management under InterAgency Agreement M09PG00016. E.C.G. was supported by a National Research Council (National Academy of Sciences) Postdoctoral Fellowship.Collections
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