Cerchio Salvatore, Weir Caroline R
African Aquatic Conservation Fund, P.O. Box 366, Chilmark, MA 02535, USA.
Falklands Conservation, Jubilee Villas, Ross Road, Stanley FIQQ 1ZZ, Falkland Islands.
R Soc Open Sci. 2022 Nov 9;9(11):220738. doi: 10.1098/rsos.220738. eCollection 2022 Nov.
Although sei whales () are distributed throughout the globe, their behaviour and vocal repertoire are poorly described. We used passive acoustic monitoring to describe the vocal behaviour of sei whales in the Falkland Islands, between December 2018 and April 2019. We isolated more than 2000 low-frequency calls for manual classification, of which 510 calls with high signal-to-noise ratio were quantitatively measured. Five categories of stereotyped call types in the 15-230 Hz range were described, some with multiple subcategories. These included some similar to previously described calls (e.g. downsweeps), but others that were novel in acoustic structure and frequency band. In the mid-frequency range, we documented a highly stereotyped, hierarchically structured and rhythmically repetitive song display. Songs were arranged in phrases with a structure composed of repetitive sub-phrases, and a diverse variety of sounds in the 1-5 kHz range. Singing commenced in late February, despite the presence of whales and calls since early December, and continued through April. These acoustic properties and behavioural characteristics indicate that this is likely a male breeding display similar to songs and singing of other balaenopterids. This is the first detailed description of a song display for sei whales, highlighting the importance of the Falkland Islands.
尽管塞鲸（）分布于全球，但对它们的行为和发声全部内容却描述甚少。我们利用被动声学监测来描述2018年12月至2019年4月期间福克兰群岛塞鲸的发声行为。我们分离出2000多个低频叫声进行人工分类，其中510个信噪比高的叫声进行了定量测量。描述了15 - 230赫兹范围内的五类刻板叫声类型，有些还有多个子类别。其中一些类似于先前描述的叫声（例如下扫频），但其他一些在声学结构和频带上是新颖的。在中频范围内，我们记录到一种高度刻板、层次结构分明且节奏重复的歌声展示。歌声以短语形式排列，其结构由重复的子短语组成，并且在1 - 5千赫兹范围内有各种各样的声音。尽管自12月初就有鲸鱼和叫声出现，但歌唱始于2月下旬，并持续到4月。这些声学特性和行为特征表明，这可能是一种类似于其他须鲸科动物的歌声和歌唱行为的雄性繁殖展示。这是对塞鲸歌声展示的首次详细描述，凸显了福克兰群岛的重要性。
