Marine Mammal Science最新文献

{"title":"An observation of sexual behavior between two male humpback whales","authors":"Stephanie H. Stack, Lyle Krannichfeld, Brandi Romano","doi":"10.1111/mms.13119","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mms.13119","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Humpback whales (<i>Megaptera novaeangliae</i>) are a species whose social behavior has been studied for decades, but whose sexual behavior remains largely undescribed. Most humpback whales spend the summer months feeding in polar waters and migrate during fall and winter months to tropical waters, where the observed behaviors are related largely to reproduction (Chittleborough, <span>1965</span>; Craig et al., <span>2003</span>; Currie et al., <span>2018</span>). Despite decades of research on humpback whales around the world, reports of penis extrusion by males are relatively rare (Herman et al., <span>2007</span>; Pack et al., <span>1998</span>, <span>2002</span>) and copulation in humpback whales has not yet been documented (Ransome et al., <span>2021</span>). This is the first report of penetration by a humpback whale, and the first report of sexual activity between two male humpback whales.</p><p>Nonreproductive sexual behavior occurs between individuals whose age and/or sex mean that there is no possibility of producing offspring, such as same sex interactions or interactions between immature animals (Furuichi et al., <span>2014</span>). In many species, the functions of sexual behavior extend beyond reproduction. Heterosexual behavior often occurs in nonreproductive contexts and homosexual behavior is common in the animal kingdom (Bagemihl, <span>1999</span>). Sexual interactions between individuals of the same sex have been documented for a wide range of species, as reviewed in Bagemihl (<span>1999</span>).</p><p>Among marine mammals, there are observations of this behavior in pinnipeds, e.g., walrus, <i>Odobenus rosmarus</i>; gray seal, <i>Halichoerus grypus</i>; and cetaceans, e.g., Amazon river dolphin, <i>Inia geoffrensis</i>; common bottlenose dolphin, <i>Tursiops truncatus</i>; Atlantic spotted dolphin, <i>Stenella frontalis</i>; killer whales <i>Orcinus orca</i>; gray whale, <i>Eschrichtius robustus</i>; and bowhead whale, <i>Balaena mysticetus</i> (reviewed in Bagemihl, <span>1999</span>; Ham et al., <span>2023</span>). In male cetaceans, homosexual activity can involve insertion of the penis of one male into the genital slit (Sylvestre, <span>1985</span>) or anus (Renjun et al., <span>1994</span>) of another male. The purpose for nonreproductive behavior is varied; proposed functions include learning or practicing reproductive behaviors, establishing or reinforcing dominance relationships, forming social alliances, and/or reduction in social tension (reviewed in Bagemihl, <span>1999</span>; Bailey & Zuk, <span>2009</span>). Male–male sexual behavior is well studied in common bottlenose dolphins and plays an important role in social interactions among individuals (Caldwell & Caldwell, <span>1972</span>; Mann, <span>2006</span>; Östman, <span>1991</span>). Nonsexual behavior in cetaceans can also be associated with agonism and dominance behavior (Ham et al., <span>2023</span>). D'Agostino et al. (<span>2017</span>) desc","PeriodicalId":18725,"journal":{"name":"Marine Mammal Science","volume":"40 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mms.13119","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140011204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of external tags on maternal postpartum, offspring body mass and breeding frequency in gray seals Halichoerus grypus","authors":"Charity C. Justrabo,&nbsp;Cornelia E. den Heyer,&nbsp;W. Don Bowen,&nbsp;Damian C. Lidgard","doi":"10.1111/mms.13114","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mms.13114","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Few studies have examined the impacts of externally fitted data-loggers and telemetry tags on pinnipeds. We tested for instrument effects on body mass of lactating female gray seals and their offspring and probability of pupping in the next breeding season. Known-age adult females (<i>n</i> = 216) were fitted with instruments in winter, spring, and fall from 1992 to 2018 at Sable Island, Nova Scotia. Of those tagged in spring and fall, 61 of 135 returning females and 59 of their offspring were weighed within 5 days postpartum and 79 pups were weighed at weaning. Instrumented females were assigned to treatments based on tag frontal area sums, tag mass, deployment duration, and acoustic tag presence compared to control females without instruments using linear mixed-effects models. None of the treatment effects were included in the preferred models predicting birth mass of offspring or probability of breeding in the following year. The small negative effect (−3% to −7%) on postpartum maternal mass and pup weaning mass (−4.7%) for females instrumented in fall may be an artifact as longer spring deployments showed no effect. Overall, we found that the instruments deployed had no detectable negative effects on the maternal and offspring variables measured.</p>","PeriodicalId":18725,"journal":{"name":"Marine Mammal Science","volume":"40 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mms.13114","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140007268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Underwater vocalizations in foraging female Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) in the Kerguelen Islands","authors":"Mathilde Chevallay,&nbsp;Christophe Guinet,&nbsp;Tiphaine Jeanniard du Dot","doi":"10.1111/mms.13118","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mms.13118","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the marine environment, many animals use sound to interact and communicate with their conspecifics or other species. Over the last decades, the development of sound recording systems has allowed a significant advance in our knowledge of sound production in marine animals. We deployed miniature sound and movement tags on Antarctic fur seals (AFS), a small otariid foraging on mesopelagic fish, to uncover potential underwater vocalizations in this species. Tags recorded underwater sounds synchronously with high-resolution AFS movements and diving behavior, allowing us to investigate the behavioral context of vocalizations in the natural environment. We provide evidence of underwater vocalizations in foraging female AFS in a context of foraging at sea. AFS produced stereotyped calls made of low-frequency pulses produced in series, exclusively during foraging dives. We hypothesized that these acoustic pulse series could be used as an acoustic lure to confuse or attract fish prey, however, a larger sample size is needed to study the adaptive significance of these underwater vocalizations.</p>","PeriodicalId":18725,"journal":{"name":"Marine Mammal Science","volume":"40 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mms.13118","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139956507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Passive acoustic monitoring and visual sighting survey of cetacean occurrence patterns in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia","authors":"Isla Duporge,&nbsp;Robert Lee,&nbsp;Ameer Eweida,&nbsp;Peter Mackelworth,&nbsp;Sofía Ten,&nbsp;Abdulaziz Alghamdi,&nbsp;Razan Alkhamis,&nbsp;Jesse Cochran,&nbsp;Stephen Lee,&nbsp;Holger Klinck","doi":"10.1111/mms.13113","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mms.13113","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The available data on occurrence patterns of cetaceans in the Red Sea area of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is very limited. The dearth of information is of pressing conservation concern as the coastline is undergoing rapid development as part of the Kingdom's effort to diversify its national economy. To understand how these developments will impact cetaceans in the region, the first large-scale acoustic and visual survey in the Kingdom's part of the Gulf of Aqaba and the northeastern Red Sea was undertaken in 2020. The results of the acoustic surveys reveal 3.6 encounters per 100 km of track line of odontocete species with variable distribution across the study area. No baleen whale vocalizations were detected. Through visual surveys, five odontocete species were identified within the study area: <i>Tursiops truncatus</i>, <i>T. aduncus</i>, <i>Stenella attenuata</i>, <i>S. longirostris</i>, and two opportunistic sightings of a single <i>Grampus griseus</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":18725,"journal":{"name":"Marine Mammal Science","volume":"40 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mms.13113","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139778111","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fine-scale distribution of the lungworm Halocercus delphini in the lungs of the striped dolphin, Stenella coeruleoalba: implications about migration pathways and functional significance","authors":"Rachel V. Pool,&nbsp;Neus Pons-García,&nbsp;Francesco Consoli,&nbsp;Miguel Rivero,&nbsp;Cristiano Bombardi,&nbsp;Juan A. Raga,&nbsp;Francisco J. Aznar","doi":"10.1111/mms.13111","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mms.13111","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Despite their high pathogenicity, limited knowledge is available on intrahost migration pathways and microhabitat distribution of pseudaliid lungworms. In this study, the distribution of <i>Halocercus delphini</i> in the lungs of the striped dolphin, <i>Stenella coeruleoalba</i>, was analyzed on three scales: between the right and left lungs, within the lungs, and between worm clusters. Evidence of a relationship between the distribution of <i>H. delphini</i> and the perfusion of the lungs of <i>S. coeruleoalba</i> is provided by the consistent correlation of these two factors, both on a longitudinal scale and by the difference in parasite burden between the left and right lung. This relationship, when coupled with the nested pattern of colonization, suggests that this species, like many other metastrongyloids, migrates to the lungs via the circulatory system. Additionally, the concentration of lungworms around the major airways could be a further reflection of the well-perfused nature of these passageways. Equally, this distribution could be a strategy to minimize the distance that larvae must travel to exit the lungs via the trachea, as do most other metastrongyloids. On a more localized scale, the tendency of <i>H. delphini</i> to form distinct heterosexual clusters even at low infection intensities indicates active mate-seeking behavior for reproduction.</p>","PeriodicalId":18725,"journal":{"name":"Marine Mammal Science","volume":"40 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mms.13111","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139778136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A demographic survey of the Davis Strait polar bear subpopulation using physical and genetic capture-recapture-recovery sampling","authors":"Kylee D. Dunham,&nbsp;Markus G. Dyck,&nbsp;Jasmine V. Ware,&nbsp;Andrew E. Derocher,&nbsp;Eric V. Regehr,&nbsp;Harry L. Stern,&nbsp;Garry B. Stenson,&nbsp;David N. Koons","doi":"10.1111/mms.13107","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mms.13107","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Conducting assessments to understand the effects of changing environmental conditions on polar bear (<i>Ursus maritimus</i>) demography has become increasingly important to inform management and conservation. Here, we combined physical (2005–2007) and genetic (2017–2018) mark-recapture with harvest recovery data (2005–2018) to estimate demographic rates of the Davis Strait polar bear subpopulation and examine the possible effects of climate, dynamic ice habitat, and prey resources on survival. Large sample sizes (e.g., 2,513 marked animals) allowed us to estimate temporal variation in annual survival rates using multistate mark-recapture-recovery models. We did not detect statistically significant effects of climate, ice habitat, and prey during the 13-year study. Estimated total abundance in 2006 was 2,190, credible interval (CRI) [1,954, 2,454] and 1,944, CRI [1,593, 2,366] in 2018. Geometric mean population growth rate (0.99, 95% CRI [0.97, 1.01]) indicated the subpopulation may have declined slightly between 2006 and 2018. However, we did not detect a declining trend in survival or substantial change in reproductive metrics over this period. Given forecasts of major environmental change we emphasize the need to review monitoring programs for this subpopulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":18725,"journal":{"name":"Marine Mammal Science","volume":"40 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139838772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Abundance estimate of Eastern Caribbean sperm whales using large scale regional surveys","authors":"Felicia Vachon,&nbsp;Luke Rendell,&nbsp;Shane Gero,&nbsp;Hal Whitehead","doi":"10.1111/mms.13116","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mms.13116","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;Many conservation management strategies rely on the knowledge of a species' habitat use and abundance. Consequently, population size is a central metric for species conservation management (Keith et al., &lt;span&gt;2015&lt;/span&gt;; Martin et al., &lt;span&gt;2007&lt;/span&gt;; Yoccoz et al., &lt;span&gt;2001&lt;/span&gt;) and is an important determinant of conservation status (e.g., IUCN; Mace et al., &lt;span&gt;2008&lt;/span&gt;). However, accurate population estimates can be hampered by incomplete knowledge of species' movements, population structure, habitat use, and distribution (Boyce et al., &lt;span&gt;2016&lt;/span&gt;; Keiter et al., &lt;span&gt;2017&lt;/span&gt;; Ketz et al., &lt;span&gt;2018&lt;/span&gt;). Such challenges are particularly relevant to cetacean conservation as cetaceans are highly mobile (e.g., Kennedy et al., &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;; Whitehead et al., &lt;span&gt;2008&lt;/span&gt;), often difficult to monitor (Kaschner et al., &lt;span&gt;2012&lt;/span&gt;), and might have unexpected behavior and distributions due to their reliance on social learning and culture (reviewed in Whitehead &amp; Rendell &lt;span&gt;2015&lt;/span&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Although the sperm whale (&lt;i&gt;Physeter macrocephalus&lt;/i&gt;) is one of the better studied cetacean species, population status assessment at the global (e.g., Whitehead &amp; Shin, &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;) and regional scales can be difficult due to the species' low genetic variation across ocean basins (Alexander et al., &lt;span&gt;2013&lt;/span&gt;; Morin et al., &lt;span&gt;2018&lt;/span&gt;), long range movements (Mizroch &amp; Rice, &lt;span&gt;2013&lt;/span&gt;; Rendell &amp; Frantzis, &lt;span&gt;2016&lt;/span&gt;; Whitehead et al., &lt;span&gt;2008&lt;/span&gt;), and an incomplete understanding of their population structure—especially at the regional scale (Taylor et al., &lt;span&gt;2019&lt;/span&gt;). Sperm whale social structure is hierarchical. At the basal level, females and juveniles live in stable matrilineal social units of 6–12 individuals (Whitehead et al., &lt;span&gt;2012&lt;/span&gt;). Social units will form temporary associations (on the scale of hours to days), called groups, with other social units to forage and socialize (Christal et al., &lt;span&gt;1998&lt;/span&gt;). Interactions between individuals, and between social units, are then structured at the highest level by their membership to different cultural groups called “vocal clans.” Whales from different vocal clans have distinct acoustic repertoires and do not associate with each other, even if they occur sympatrically (e.g., Eastern Tropical Pacific: Rendell &amp; Whitehead &lt;span&gt;2003&lt;/span&gt;; Eastern Caribbean: Gero et al., &lt;span&gt;2016&lt;/span&gt;, Vachon et al., &lt;span&gt;2022b&lt;/span&gt;; Japan: Amano et al., &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;; Brazil: Amorim et al., &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;; Mauritius: Huijser et al., 2019). Vocal clans can contain hundreds to thousands of individuals (Rendell &amp; Whitehead, &lt;span&gt;2003&lt;/span&gt;) and can also vary in their social structure (Cantor &amp; Whitehead &lt;span&gt;2015&lt;/span&gt;), feeding success (Marcoux et al., &lt;span&gt;2007&lt;/span&gt;; Whitehead &amp; Rendell, &lt;span&gt;2004&lt;/span&gt;), distribution (Eguiguren et al., &lt;span&gt;2019&lt;/span&gt;; ","PeriodicalId":18725,"journal":{"name":"Marine Mammal Science","volume":"40 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mms.13116","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139837484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing the dynamics of common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) mother-calf pairs along the south coast of Portugal using unmanned aerial vehicles","authors":"Joana Castro,&nbsp;André Cid,&nbsp;Alicia Quirin,&nbsp;Fábio L. Matos,&nbsp;Rui Rosa,&nbsp;Heidi C. Pearson","doi":"10.1111/mms.13115","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mms.13115","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Maternal grouping dynamics involve trade-offs between: (1) infant protection from predation (predation hypothesis), (2) infant protection from male harassment (infant safety hypothesis), and (3) reducing scramble competition for prey resources (foraging-type scramble competition hypothesis). Using unmanned aerial vehicles, we assessed grouping dynamics in common dolphin (<i>Delphinus delphis</i>) groups containing mother-calf pairs to address these hypotheses. We analyzed social aspects and structural group elements using generalized additive mixed models and modeled group formation using multinomial generalized estimating equations. Calf proportion was higher in very compact groups and in groups of 10–20 individuals but decreased in larger groups. The frequency of socio-sexual behaviors increased in larger groups and decreased in groups with higher calf proportion. Calf distance to its nearest neighbor decreased with increasing group size and cohesion. With a higher proportion of calves, scatter (versus parallel) formation was less frequent. A calf's nearest neighbor was most often (55.4%) a nonmother. Calves showed a preference for being in the front center of the group. These results offer strong support for the predation and infant safety hypotheses and partial support for the foraging-type scramble competition hypothesis. This work provides insight into the adaptive function of maternal strategies in a small delphinid.</p>","PeriodicalId":18725,"journal":{"name":"Marine Mammal Science","volume":"40 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139840007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"IN MEMORIAM","authors":"Carolina Loch,&nbsp;Daniel Thomas,&nbsp;Michael D. Gottfried","doi":"10.1111/mms.13117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.13117","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":18725,"journal":{"name":"Marine Mammal Science","volume":"40 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2024-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140345645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rice's whale occurrence in the western Gulf of Mexico from passive acoustic recordings","authors":"Melissa S. Soldevilla,&nbsp;Amanda J. Debich,&nbsp;Itzel Pérez-Carballo,&nbsp;Sierra Jarriel,&nbsp;Kaitlin E. Frasier,&nbsp;Lance P. Garrison,&nbsp;Adolfo Gracia,&nbsp;John A. Hildebrand,&nbsp;Patricia E. Rosel,&nbsp;Arturo Serrano","doi":"10.1111/mms.13109","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mms.13109","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;Rice's whales (&lt;i&gt;Balaenoptera ricei&lt;/i&gt;) are one of the most endangered marine mammal species in the world. Their known distribution is restricted to the Gulf of Mexico (GoMx) and basic knowledge of their ecology is limited. In their core distribution area along the northeastern GoMx shelf break (Rosel &amp; Garrison, &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;), their abundance was estimated at 51 individuals, 95% CI [20, 130], based on line transect surveys conducted during 2017 and 2018 (Garrison et al., &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;). Most Rice's whale sightings and acoustic detections during the last 30 years occur in this area off the northwestern coast of Florida (Rice et al., &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;; Rosel et al., &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;; Širović et al., &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;; Soldevilla et al., &lt;span&gt;2017&lt;/span&gt;; Soldevilla, Ternus, et al., &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;). While visual sightings are rare (e.g., Rosel et al., &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;), recent passive acoustic detections during one year of recordings (Soldevilla, Debich, et al., &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;) establish that they routinely occur along the shelf break of the northwestern GoMx off Louisiana as well. Currently, Rice's whales are only known to occur within U.S. waters of the northern GoMx, although whaling records (Reeves et al., &lt;span&gt;2011&lt;/span&gt;) suggest they were distributed more broadly across the GoMx historically. Understanding their range and distribution is important for evaluating the impacts of human activities, including climate change, that threaten their long-term survival. Considering the high levels of anthropogenic activity throughout the GoMx (e.g., oil and gas exploration and extraction, fisheries, shipping, and oil spills), a comprehensive knowledge of the current distribution of Rice's whales is needed to understand the risk of these activities to the whales and to develop effective recovery and conservation strategies for this endangered species (Rosel et al., &lt;span&gt;2016&lt;/span&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Long-term autonomous passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is a highly effective method for establishing the distribution of rare whale species, particularly in areas where they occur infrequently or were sighted by whalers historically (e.g., Mellinger et al., &lt;span&gt;2011&lt;/span&gt;; Munger et al., &lt;span&gt;2008&lt;/span&gt;). Rice's whales produce highly stereotyped call types, including long-moans, tonal-sequence calls, and pulsed downsweep sequences, which are readily identifiable in autonomous recordings (Rice et al., &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;; Širović et al., &lt;span&gt;2014&lt;/span&gt;; Soldevilla, Ternus, et al., &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;). Variants of the long-moan calls that have been described include one detected only in the northeastern GoMx and six detected primarily in the northwestern GoMx (Soldevilla, Debich, et al., &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;; Soldevilla, Ternus, et al., &lt;span&gt;2022&lt;/span&gt;). The northeastern long-moan call type is a long-duration frequency-downswept call with an average initial frequency of 150 Hz, center frequency of 107 Hz, and duration of 22 s (Rice et al","PeriodicalId":18725,"journal":{"name":"Marine Mammal Science","volume":"40 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mms.13109","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139840343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}