correlation between vocalization and breaching nicole lee beam reach marine science and...
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Correlation between vocalization and breaching
Nicole Lee
Beam Reach Marine science and sustainability school
Status
considered for listing as “threatened” in U.S, endangered in Canada
Human/ whale interaction throughout history
Probable cause of resident status = language barrier
Echolocation discovery – helped inform how communication occurs
What if communication were better understood?
Theories of why Breaching occurs
Exercise AggravationForagingSocializing, or “playing”All of the above
Motivation
Past researchers
Behavior in 4 broad categories: Foraging, traveling, resting and socializing (Ford, Ellis, Balcomb 1994)
Breaching = behavior seen during socializing
Highly variable squeaks, squawks, and whistles while socializing
My Curiosities
What kind of vocalizations are made when breaching, no matter what explanation for that activity was correct.
Can a correlation between breaching and vocalizations be found?
What theory will I develop?
My Experiment Designed to record
vocalizations and analyze sounds I heard at the time I observed a breach
My Expectations To find a correlation between
breaches and vocalization No correlation?
Methods
Instruments used: “Ears”, “Elephant Ears” Amplifier Maranz recording device
Software Ishmael Creative Wave Studio Call tutor
Behavior observation data sheet
Results
The most frequent call heard when breaching occurred was S10
*Rainy day breaches were common, out of 11 S10 calls 6 were heard on rainy day.
Number of Calls vs Stereotypical Call ID
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
S1 S2 S6 S7 S10 S11 S13 S15 S16
Calls
Nu
mb
er o
f C
alls
Although S10 calls occurred most frequently during observations, and showed somewhat of a trend, I found there not to be a consistent call when breaching occurred.
S10 Calls vs Breaches
R2 = 0.0769
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Number of breaches
Nu
mb
er o
f S
10 C
alls
Acknowledgements/ Bibliography
Thanks to Scott Veirs for his teaching, guidance, and support; to Val Veirs for his instruction and equipment, to Captain Todd Shuster for allowing me to reside on his boat for five weeks, to the other Beam Reach students for their help, and to the Friday Harbor Labs for their facilities. Thanks also to Fred Felleman, Ken Balcomb, Rich Osborne, and David Bain for their time, insight and motivation. Finally, thanks to Orca Network for providing us with beneficial information.
(Ford et al., 2004) J.K.B. Ford, G.M. Ellis, and K.C. Balcomb. 1994. Killer Whales: The natural history and genealogy of Orcinus Orca in British Columbia and Washington State. UBC Press, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Pictures by Scott Veirs, Laura Christoferson and Val Veirs.
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