Preliminary analysis of social calls used by tagged humpback whales in the Los Cabos, México, breeding ground

Humpback whales produce a large variety of diverse sounds beyond their well-known songs. Mothers, calves, and non-breeding whales may use these “social sounds” to maintain group cohesion, facilitate feeding, and/or increase a calf’s safety. To date, social sounds have been studied off Hawaii, Alaska, and Australia. During the 2014-2015 breeding seasons, acoustic tag data were collected from humpback whales off Los Cabos, Mexico. Twenty-one tags successfully recorded data (nine in 2014; 13 in 2015) from three mother/calf pairs, ten mother/calf/escort groups, and eight competitive pods varying in size from four to fourteen individuals. A subsequent manual analysis found 1587 social sounds in 2258 total minutes of data. Currently, there are 42 identified distinct social sounds used by humpback whales in the Los Cabos breeding ground, six of which seem unique to the Cabo region as compared to those published from Australia, Hawaii, and Alaska. Call type usage, call rates, and repertoire diversity (measured us...