Greetings:
We are pleased to announce the publication of a new paper on
humpback whale song. The paper is available as an Online First
Article (prior to the print version) in the July 2013 issue of
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, and a PDF may be downloaded
from Springer Direct if you or your institution has access. I will
post a second notice when the print version appears with
instructions as to how to obtain a PDF of that. You may contact me
for further information.
Humpback whale song: who sings? Herman, L. M., Pack. A. A., Spitz,
S. S., Herman, E. Y. K., Rose, K., Hakala, S. & Deakos, M. H. 2013.
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 67 (3 July 2013) DOI
10.1007/s00265-013-1576-8
Abstract
While on their winter breeding grounds, male humpback whales
(Megaptera novaeangliae) produce long sequences of structured
vocalizations called song, whose function within the mating system
is still unresolved. Here we ask which males sing. Is it only those
sexually mature, as typifies songbirds and some lekking ungulates in
which vocalizations during the rut are restricted to mature males?
Or do immature males join in the chorus? Using an underwater
videogrammetric technique, we measured the body lengths of 87
humpback singers in the Hawaiian winter grounds. Applying length and
sexual maturity relationships for North Pacific humpbacks as
determined by biologists aboard twentieth century Japanese whaling
vessels, we found that singer lengths ranged from 10.7 to 13.6 m,
with 15 % of lengths indicative of probable sexual immaturity
(length<11.3 m, p [maturity]<0.5). We interpret this broad
participation of males as a lekking aggregation and the asynchronous
singing chorus as an instance of by-product mutualism. The
participation of many singers yields a heightened signal level that
may attract more females to the singing area. Sexually mature males
can benefit through access to more females. Immature males may gain
deferred benefits through increased opportunities to learn and
practice the social, behavioral, and acoustical skills and
conventions of the winter grounds that they can apply usefully in
later years.
Cheers,
Lou Herman
[email protected]
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