Unraveling the Communicative Properties of Surface Active Behaviors in Southern Residents Horace Liang Beam Reach: School of Marine Science and Sustainability June 3, 2009
Why Surface Active Behaviors Behavioral States –Traveling, Foraging, Resting, Socializing Are there meanings behind SABs? –Play or Irritation? Whale watching impacts
Main Questions Do certain discrete call-types occur that coincide with specific surface active behaviors? Does presence of boats or boat noise affect the SAB rate of killer whales?
Methods Behavioral Data –Spreadsheets –Binoculars –Watch and GPS Acoustic Data –Sound Devices –Hydrophone Array Monika Wieland’s 2007 Lime Kiln Data
(209)
Analysis Audacity beta –Classified Discrete Call-types –Ford’s 1987 Catalog of Calls Microsoft Excel –Paired T-tests (Call-types in SABs) –ANOVA (Boat distance) –Linear Regression (SAB rates from noise)
p-value = Sample size = 209
p-value = Sample Size = 5
p-value = Sample Size = 30
Further Research Larger Sample Size Data collection during different seasons Addition of Localization Individual animal IDs Underwater video monitoring
Acknowledgments Thank you so much... –Dr. Jason Wood –Dr. Val Veirs –Dr. Scott Veirs –Captain Todd Shuster –Nora, Kathryn, Libby –Monika Wieland –Friday Harbor Labs –Mom and Dad –Beam Reach