Using acoustic tools to investigate humpback whale behavior and ecology
Conference Year
2024
Abstract
Rhythm is a fundamental component of human life. In human music, the most common rhythmic patterns have discrete ratio categories, with isochrony being the simplest one. Several studies have reported spontaneous rhythm productions in non-human species. These studies hypothesize that rhythmic patterns could facilitate learning, cognitive processing, reproductive success, or song coordination. More specifically, previous work hypothesizes that in male humpback whales, rhythm could facilitate learning new song renditions by allowing males to predict phrase repetitions. However, only a handful of studies have documented rhythm in the song of humpback whales. This project has two aims, the first is to determine the presence of categorical rhythms in the songs of two humpback whale populations with the same breeding habitats in Costa Rica. The second is to evaluate the contribution of population, breeding season, time of the day, single vs. multiple singers in the background, and ambient noise levels on the temporal features of their song. Acoustic recordings will be collected in Cuajiniquil and Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, using autonomous recorders and a recording system from the boat. To identify categorical rhythms, I will look at the inter-onset intervals IOIs and the ratio between two consecutive IOIs and their distribution. This study can potentially further our understanding of how humpback whale song transmission occurs, and more broadly it can contribute to our understanding of the evolution of rhythm in humans and other animal lineages.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Laura May-Collado
Status
Graduate
Student College
College of Arts and Sciences
Program/Major
Biology
Primary Research Category
Life Sciences
Using acoustic tools to investigate humpback whale behavior and ecology
Rhythm is a fundamental component of human life. In human music, the most common rhythmic patterns have discrete ratio categories, with isochrony being the simplest one. Several studies have reported spontaneous rhythm productions in non-human species. These studies hypothesize that rhythmic patterns could facilitate learning, cognitive processing, reproductive success, or song coordination. More specifically, previous work hypothesizes that in male humpback whales, rhythm could facilitate learning new song renditions by allowing males to predict phrase repetitions. However, only a handful of studies have documented rhythm in the song of humpback whales. This project has two aims, the first is to determine the presence of categorical rhythms in the songs of two humpback whale populations with the same breeding habitats in Costa Rica. The second is to evaluate the contribution of population, breeding season, time of the day, single vs. multiple singers in the background, and ambient noise levels on the temporal features of their song. Acoustic recordings will be collected in Cuajiniquil and Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, using autonomous recorders and a recording system from the boat. To identify categorical rhythms, I will look at the inter-onset intervals IOIs and the ratio between two consecutive IOIs and their distribution. This study can potentially further our understanding of how humpback whale song transmission occurs, and more broadly it can contribute to our understanding of the evolution of rhythm in humans and other animal lineages.