Clark Christopher W, Gagnon George J, Frankel Adam S
Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA.
Marine Acoustics, Inc., 2417 Camino Real South, Virginia Beach, VA 23456, USA.
R Soc Open Sci. 2019 Jun 5;6(6):180525. doi: 10.1098/rsos.180525. eCollection 2019 Jun.
The attributes of male acoustic advertisement displays are often related to a performer's age, breeding condition and motivation, but these relationships are particularly difficult to study in free-ranging marine mammals. For fin whale singers, we examined the relationships between a singer's swimming speed, song duration and amount of singing. We used a unique set of fin whale singing and swimming data collected in support of the US Navy's marine mammal monitoring programme associated with the Navy's Integrated Undersea Surveillance System. A goal of the programme is to improve understanding of the potential effects of anthropogenic sound sources on baleen whale behaviours and populations. We found that as whales swam faster, some continued to sing, while others did not. If swimming speed is an indication of male stamina, then singing while swimming faster could be a display by which females and/or other males assess a singer's physical fitness and potential reproductive quality. Results have implications for interpreting fin whale singing behaviour and the possible influences of anthropogenic sounds on fin whale mating strategies and breeding success.
雄性声学广告展示的特征通常与表演者的年龄、繁殖状况和动机有关，但在自由活动的海洋哺乳动物中，这些关系特别难以研究。对于长须鲸的歌唱者，我们研究了歌唱者的游泳速度、歌曲时长和歌唱量之间的关系。我们使用了一组独特的长须鲸歌唱和游泳数据，这些数据是为支持美国海军与海军综合水下监视系统相关的海洋哺乳动物监测计划而收集的。该计划的一个目标是增进对人为声源对须鲸行为和种群的潜在影响的理解。我们发现，随着鲸鱼游得更快，一些鲸鱼继续歌唱，而另一些则不唱。如果游泳速度是雄性耐力的一个指标，那么游得更快时歌唱可能是一种展示，雌性和/或其他雄性可以据此评估歌唱者的身体素质和潜在繁殖质量。研究结果对于解释长须鲸的歌唱行为以及人为声音对长须鲸交配策略和繁殖成功率的可能影响具有重要意义。
