10.5061/DRYAD.73H36
Trudelle, Laurène
French National Centre for Scientific Research
Cerchio, Salvatore
New England Aquarium
Zerbini, Alexandre N.
National Marine Fisheries Service
Geyer, Ygor
Instituto Aqualie, Av. Dr. Paulo Japiassú 714/206, Juiz de Fora, MG
36033-310, Brazil
Mayer, Francois-Xavier
Cetamada, Port Barachois, Ambodifotatra BP 5, 515 Sainte Marie, Madagascar
Jung, Jean-Luc
BioGemme Laboratory, Brest, France
Hervé, Maxime R.
Institute of Plant Sciences—‘Biotic interactions’ group, Altenbergrain
21, 3013 Bern, Switzerland
Pous, Stéphane
Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace
Sallée, Jean-Baptiste
Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace
Rosenbaum, Howard C.
Wildlife Conservation Society
Adam, Olivier
French National Centre for Scientific Research
Charrassin, Jean-Benoit
Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace
Data from: Influence of environmental parameters on movements and habitat
utilization of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the Madagascar
breeding ground
Dryad
dataset
2016
movement patterns
satellite telemetry
Megaptera novaeangliae
Breeding
2016-11-21T20:43:11Z
2016-11-21T20:43:11Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160616
155648 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Assessing the movement patterns and key habitat features of breeding
humpback whales is a prerequisite for the conservation management of this
philopatric species. To investigate the interactions between humpback
whale movements and environmental conditions off Madagascar, we deployed
25 satellite tags in the northeast and southwest coast of Madagascar. For
each recorded position, we collated estimates of environmental variables
and computed two behavioural metrics: behavioural state of ‘transiting’
(consistent/directional) versus ‘localized’ (variable/non-directional),
and active swimming speed (i.e. speed relative to the current). On coastal
habitats (i.e. bathymetry < 200 m and in adjacent areas), females
showed localized behaviour in deep waters (191 ± 20 m) and at large
distances (14 ± 0.6 km) from shore, suggesting that their breeding habitat
extends beyond the shallowest waters available close to the coastline.
Males' active swimming speed decreased in shallow waters, but
environmental parameters did not influence their likelihood to exhibit
localized movements, which was probably dominated by social factors
instead. In oceanic habitats, both males and females showed localized
behaviours in shallow waters and favoured high chlorophyll-a
concentrations. Active swimming speed accounts for a large proportion of
observed movement speed; however, breeding humpback whales probably
exploit prevailing ocean currents to maximize displacement. This study
provides evidence that coastal areas, generally subject to strong human
pressure, remain the core habitat of humpback whales off Madagascar. Our
results expand the knowledge of humpback whale habitat use in oceanic
habitat and response to variability of environmental factors such as
oceanic current and chlorophyll level.
Trudelle_et_al_data
Madagascar
Southern Indian Ocean