Humpback whale songs along the coast of Western Australia and some comparison with east coast songs

6 Pages·1991·1.5 MB·English

by  W H Dawbin

A
HUMPBACKWHALESONGS ALONG THE COASTOF WESTERN AUSTRA1
AND SOME COMPARISON WITH EASTCOASTSONGS 1
WILLIAM H. DAWB1N ANDELIZABETH J EYRE
Dawbin, W.H. and Eyre, fc.J. 1991 07 01; Humpback Whale songs along ihe coast of
WesternAustraliaandsomecomparisonwitheastcoastsongs, MrmmnoftheQueensland
W«sftiM3ft(2J: 249-254. Brisbane. ISSN 0079-8835.
HWlpback Whalesongshavebeenrecordedsince 1986offWesternAustralia.Thesesongs
share no themes wilh lho.se recorded offeastern Australia, supportingotherevidence that
rbe iu" bleeding stocks are separate despitesome overlap in Antarctic feeding areas.
W ithum H. Uowbirt, Australian Museum, 6-8 CollegeStreet, Sydney, NewSouth Wales,
2000, r.lizahcihJ. Eyre, Ifitiii-85AlfredStreet, RamsgateBeach, N'ewSouth Waif* 22J'7;
Humpback whales regularly migrate along along the west coast from its northern most to
continental coastlines in the Southern Hemi- southernmostextremities(DawbinandGill,this
sphere (Dawbin, 1966), and produce complex memoir). Spectrograms of the stings and short
songs (Payne and McVay. 1971) which change hand use of descriptive words for each sound
over lime (Payne et al., f9S31 To date most were incorporated for song analysis. The
detailed studies refer lo Northern Hemisphere spectrogramswcretracedforthepurposesofthis
stocks. This report describes the results of report to eliminatebackground noise and enable
studies from the west coast of Australia which clearer definition ofsong units.
began in 1986, together with comparison with Themes were numbered by allocating the last
data collected from the east coast in 1989 themeas thatwhich included soundswhichwere
Studies of populations of humpbacks in the nearest in character to the "surface ratchet"
Northern Hemispherehave shownthatsongsare described by Winn et al. (1971). As songs may
similar within oceans, but differ significantly differ between singers, comparisons here are
where oceansare isolatedbya land mass (Payne made on what are regarded as representative
and Guinee, 1983 ; Winn et »1„ 1981). The songsamples.
Australian populations of Areas IV and V also Table 2, demonstrating song change, uses
exhibit major differences from each other in methods, as described by Helweg et al. (1990)
song length and content. The Western Australian 1986 song is used as a
Evolution of songs can be a gradual or rapid reference, with each Theme occurring after tfu
process,with songschanging notonly from year surface ratchet labelled successively from A to
to year, but also within the year, as the whales E. Themes from following years which cor-
migrate to and from the breeding grounds. respond to any ofthose in 1986 fall into A to E»
This paper will examine some of the song butnewthemesaregivensubsequentnew letters.
changesthat haveoccurredamongst the Area IV
population during 1986-1989, with recent data RESULTS
from 1990 included. Recordings from the cast
coast will be examined briefly for comparison Thesongchanged in the first theme from 1986
between populations. |0 l9NX;ind 1990(Fig. I ). Betweenthe 1986and
19S7 songs there was substantial change, with
METHODS little similarity between themes. In 1988 there
was substantial change from the 1987 songrep-
Equipment used was a Clcvite Ordnance ertoire. From 1988onwards, however,the arran-
Oyster hydrophone(CH-15)with 30 m ofcable, gements ofsounds within themes became more
WMD6
a preamplifier and a Sony cassette re- similar, with only slight progressive change be-
corder. Recordings used for analysiswere made tween units ofsound from 1988 to 1990.
during the migration period from Dampier (20° Thechangeinsongfrom 1986to 1987wasnot
39'S, 1 L6fl 45'E) to Rottnest Island (32° 00'S, as great as it was from 1987 to 1988 (Table 1).
15* 3(TE). Other recordings have been made The number of themes remained the same over
1
250 MEMOIRS OFTHE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM
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252 MEMOIRS OFTHE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM
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HUMPHACK WHALE SONGS, W A.
1986 and 1987 and thendecreased from 5 to4in suggest a high degree of independence between
1988 (Table 1). The song remained stable cast and west coast breeding stocks.
during 1988 and 1989. and then in 1990 two
themeswere incorporated intoone, droppingthe DISCUSSION
theme number from 4 to 3.
For further comparison. Fig. 2 shows the last Song change can occur on many levels.
theme from the year 19S9, and Fig. 3 the First Recordings from both coasts of Australia have
theme from the same year. Both northern and shown that the content and structure of a song
southern migration songs are represented from may change between years or within years
Western Australia and these resemble each during the northern and southern migrations.
other. These first and last themes of 1989 Therecanalsobedifferencesbetween individual
resemble the first and last themes of 1988 and singersandeach songrenditionofan individual.
1990 (Fig. 1). Change can occur either suddenly or progres-
sively, and even within the songs themselves
THFMF. WAS6 WA87 WAS* WAS1? WAMtj HB89 there can be different rates ofevolution.
A * Recordingsfrom cast andwest show that little
or progressive change tends to occur in the last
B +
and first theme, and that the majority ofchange
C * occurs in the 'body' of the song. Therefore
D * gradual change is more likely to happen at the
E - endorbeginning,with morerapidchangetaking
F 1 * place in the middle. This rapid change was seen
G - in the middle themes from 1986 and 1987, with
H thefirstandlastthemesevolvingataslowerrate.
In contrast, a slower change from 1988 to 1990
*
1 occurred during the whole song, with some
1 * - * themes not changing at all.
K * n - Recordings were made during migration as
L * > - opposed to on the breeding grounds. This is a
M * • difficult environment to record in, as the whales
N f are in transit on active migration, and weather
|
conditions are more frequently unfavourable.
o -•
1 This enabled only a small sample ofsong to U-
P * collected each year, and the identification and
* subsequent resighting of individual singers was
virtually impossible.
TABLF 1. Repeated and new themes over five years Our studies have shown, however, that
onthewestcoastandacomparisonwithoneyearfrom Australian Humpback Whale song differs be-
lilt east coast ofAustralia.The 1990songconsistsof tween the west and east coast and that these
pthorreaeti(ohnemofest,liehuftirsttheanfdirsstectohnedmethisemaectufarlolmy 1an98i8ncaonrd- songs change over time. The variability in song
1989. and the different rates it can occur at have been
presented here, but what determines the rate of
change remains unknown.
The east and west coast show no similarity in
song content. The 1989 Hcrvcy Bay sample has
no shared themes with the west from any years ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
(Table I). There is no similarity between coasts
in song elements in the first and last themes Thanks go to Chris Burton, Robert Manntll,
during 1989 (Figs 2,3). This contrasts with the Hec Goodall and the staff at The Pet Porpoise
sharingofat leastsome themesbetween Hawaii, Pool, Ross Isaacs and Peter Gill. This projtvi
Mexicoand Bonin Islands(Helwcgctal., 1990). has received financial support from a Marine
Evidencefrom "Discovery"marksindicates that Sciences and Technology Research Grant to
iwo animals marked off eastern Australia were Dawbin and Cato. Discussions with Dr. Doug
killed off Western Australia (Chittleborough, Cato have been helpful and much appreciated,
Si but acoustic data from the present study TheN.S.W. National ParksandWildlife Sen-ice
254 MEMOIRS OFTHEQUEENSLAND MUSEUM
haveprovidedvaluablevessel supportforsound Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangiiae):
recording. A detailed analysis of two seasons in Hawaii,
9-57. In R. Payne (ed.), 'Communciation and
LITERATURE CITED behaviour of whales', (Westview Press:
Boulder).
CHITTLEBOROUGH, R.G. 1965. Dynamicsoftwo PAYNE, R.S. AND McVAY, S. 1971. Songs of
populationsoftheHumpbackWhaleMegaptera Humpback Whales. Science 173: 585-597.
novaeangiiae(Borowski).Ausl.J. Mar. Freshw. PAYNE, R. AND GUINEE, L. 1983. Humpback
Res. 16:33-128. Whale (Megaptera novaeangiiae) songs as an
DAWBIN, W.H. 1966. Theseasonal migratory cycle indicator of "stocks", 333-359. In R. Payne
ofHumpback Whales. 145-170. In K.S. Norris (ed.), 'Communication and behaviour of
(ed.), 'Whales, dolphins and porpoises', (Univ. whales'. (Westview Press: Boulder).
Calif. Press: Berkeley). THOMPSON,T.J.,WINN,H.E.ANDPERKINS,P.J.
DAWBIN, W.H. AND GILL, P.C. this memoir. 1979.MysticeteSounds,403-431.InH.E.Winn
Humpback Whale survey along the west coast and B. Olla (eds), 'Behaviour ofmarine mam-
ofAustralia:acomparisonofvisualandacoustic mals, vol. 3: Cetaceans. (Plenum Press: New
observations. Mem. Qd Mus. 30(2): 255-257. York).
HELWEG, D.A., HERMAN, L.M., YAMAMOTO, WINN, H.E., THOMPSON, T.J., CUMMINGS,
S. AND FORRESTALL, P.H. 1990. Com- W.C., HAIN, J., HUDNALL, J., HAYS, H.
parisonofsongsofHumpback Whales(Megap- AND STEINER, W.W. 1981. Song of the
tera novaeangiiae) recorded in Japan, Hawaii Humpback Whale - population comparisons.
and Mexico during the winter of 1989. Sci. Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology 8: 41-
Repts. Cetacean Res. 1: 1-20. 46.
PAYNE, K., TYACK, P. AND PAYNE, R. 1983.
Progressive changes in the songs of the