Whale-call response to masking boat noise

Andrew D. Foote, Richard W. Osborne and A. Rus Hoelzel ()
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Andrew D. Foote: School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, University of Durham
Richard W. Osborne: The Whale Museum
A. Rus Hoelzel: School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, University of Durham

Nature, 2004, vol. 428, issue 6986, 910-910

Abstract: Abstract Background noise can interfere with the detection and discrimination of crucial signals among members of a species. Here we investigate the vocal behaviour in the presence and absence of whale-watcher boat traffic of three social groups (pods) of killer whales (Orcinus orca) living in the nearshore waters of Washington state. We find longer call durations in the presence of boats for all three pods, but only in recent recordings made following a period of increasing boat traffic. This result indicates that these whales adjust their behaviour to compensate for anthropogenic noise once it reaches a threshold level.

Date: 2004
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DOI: 10.1038/428910a

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