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Synchronization of bowhead whales

Evgeny A. Podolskiy1,*, Jonas Teilmann2, and Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen3

  • *Contact author: e.podolskiy@arc.hokudai.ac.jp
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Phys. Rev. Research 6, 033174 – Published 15 August, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.033174

Abstract

Inferring animal behavior from irregular tracking data is a challenging area of research. It is particularly difficult to determine if whales, who intermittently explore different depths while staying in the same acoustic medium, synchronize their days with their prey and each other over kilometer-scale distances. Here, we aim to better understand the diving behavior of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) in Disko Bay, West Greenland, using the largest high-frequency dive-depth dataset to date (144 days at 1 Hz from 12 different whales) and nonlinear dynamics, whereby we consider the whales to be chaotic (aperiodic) oscillators. We find that foraging whales dive deeper during the daytime in spring, with this diving behavior being in apparent synchrony with their vertically migrating prey. Furthermore, we demonstrate that bowhead whales can synchronize their behavior with each other for up to a week while staying within a range of up to ∼100km. This discovery agrees with the acoustic herd theory of long-range signaling in baleen whales. On the other hand, the synchrony might emerge when animals experience similar ecological conditions, which are, however, difficult to name because targeted depths and locations were separated for hundreds of meters and tens of kilometers, respectively. In this paper, we identify a framework for studying the sociality and behavior of such chaotically moving, unrestrained marine animals and call for more simultaneous tagging campaigns.

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Phys. Rev. Research 6, 033174– Published 15 August, 2024
  • Received 5 February 2024
  • Accepted 10 July 2024
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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