Dear colleagues,
My co-authors and I are pleased to share the following publication:
Giorgia Giovannini, Patrick J.O. Miller, Paul J. Wensveen & Filipa I.P. Samarra
(15 Jan 2025): Sound production during feeding in Icelandic herring-eating
killer whales (Orcinus orca), Ethology Ecology & Evolution
The article can be accessed here:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03949370.2024.2437373
Abstract: Killer whale vocal behaviour is intricately connected to dietary
preferences. In Iceland, killer whales feeding on herring are vocally active,
use tail slaps to debilitate fish and produce herding calls, thought to
function to affect prey. However, there is still limited understanding of how
sounds are used by the whales or produced during feeding activities. We used
acoustic data collected using archival tags deployed in 2009 (n = 4), 2021 (n =
9), 2022 (n = 5) and 2023 (n = 8) to investigate killer whale sound production
during feeding on herring. The acoustic record was divided into 5-min bins, and
the presence of clicks and tail slaps was marked for each bin. Then, sound
production in the 5-min prior and 1-min following each tail slap was examined
in detail, marking echolocation clicks, buzzes, herding calls and prey
consumption sounds. Most bins including echolocation clicks (81.8%) were found
to either contain a tail slap or to immediately precede a tail slap, indicating
that echolocation is primarily used during feeding and likely less so for
navigation and orientation. Buzzes, which likely function to locate debilitated
prey in the immediate vicinity of the whale, followed 73.5% of the tail slaps.
Prey consumption sounds might be useful as markers of feeding success and were
present in 63% of feeding events, always following buzzes. Herding calls were
found in 26% of feeding events in 2021–2023 and absent in 2009, which may
suggest that it is a group-specific call or that it is not used in all feeding
events. Variations in sound production of herring-eating killer whales during
feeding may be driven by environmental characteristics, individual identity or
prey characteristics; future studies combining sound with other tag sensor data
such as video, and prey sampling will be crucial to explore these possible
drivers.
For any queries or to request a copy of the PDF please feel free to contact me
at [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>.
Best wishes,
Giorgia
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