Acoustic differentiation and classification of wild belugas and narwhals using echolocation clicks

Belugas ( Delphinapterus leucas ) and narwhals ( Monodon monoceros ) are highly social Arctic toothed whales with large vocal repertoires and similar acoustic profiles. Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) that uses multiple hydrophones over large spatiotemporal scales has been a primary method to stud...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2021-11, Vol.11 (1), p.22141-16, Article 22141
Main Authors: Zahn, Marie J., Rankin, Shannon, McCullough, Jennifer L. K., Koblitz, Jens C., Archer, Frederick, Rasmussen, Marianne H., Laidre, Kristin L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/158/1144
631/158/2446/2448
631/158/672
Acoustic tracking
Acoustics
Animals
Aquatic mammals
Auditory communication
Beluga Whale - physiology
Classification
Climate change
Echolocation
Echolocation - physiology
Greenland
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hydrophones
Monodon
multidisciplinary
Pack ice
Population studies
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Species
Species Specificity
Vocalization behavior
Vocalization, Animal - physiology
Whales - physiology
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Summary:Belugas ( Delphinapterus leucas ) and narwhals ( Monodon monoceros ) are highly social Arctic toothed whales with large vocal repertoires and similar acoustic profiles. Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) that uses multiple hydrophones over large spatiotemporal scales has been a primary method to study their populations, particularly in response to rapid climate change and increasing underwater noise. This study marks the first acoustic comparison between wild belugas and narwhals from the same location and reveals that they can be acoustically differentiated and classified solely by echolocation clicks. Acoustic recordings were made in the pack ice of Baffin Bay, West Greenland, during 2013. Multivariate analyses and Random Forests classification models were applied to eighty-one single-species acoustic events comprised of numerous echolocation clicks. Results demonstrate a significant difference between species’ acoustic parameters where beluga echolocation was distinguished by higher frequency content, evidenced by higher peak frequencies, center frequencies, and frequency minimums and maximums. Spectral peaks, troughs, and center frequencies for beluga clicks were generally > 60 kHz and narwhal clicks 
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-021-01441-w