Greetings MARMAM community!
Join us on Thursday March 21st 2024 at 10 am EDT / 2 pm GMT / 3 pm CET for the
next SMM Editors Select Series Webinar:
A first investigation of geographical variation in Cape fur seals’ in-air
vocalizations, with Dr. Mathilde Martin
This event is free to attend and presented online via Zoom, but registration is
required.
Register here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_N74nknqfS9ew3imcM-TF5g
Space on Zoom is limited to the first 500 attendees. The talk will also be
streamed live on the SMM Facebook page
<https://www.facebook.com/marinemammalogy/>.
About this talk:
Marine mammals are known to communicate extensively through acoustic signals in
all their social interactions. In pinnipeds (seals, fur seals, and walruses),
breeding takes place on land (or on ice) and individuals use in-air
vocalisations to exchange information between mating partners or between mother
and young. Cape fur seals breed at about 40 different breeding sites
distributed along the southwest and south coasts of Southern Africa. These
colonies are located on both the mainland and islands and are characterized by
various terrains such as bare rock, boulders, ledges, or open sandy beaches. In
this study, we compared the acoustic features of Cape fur seals’ vocalisations
recorded at 6 different study sites in Namibia and South Africa to investigate
potential geographical variation in the species’ vocal repertoire. Comparisons
among closely located sites revealed limited geographical variation whereas
more pronounced differences were found in the frequency structure of males,
females and pups’ vocalisations recorded at more distant sites. Although we
were unable to control for certain factors (mainly due to the difficulty of
accessing the colonies), we discuss here the potential impact of social and
environmental factors in driving intra-species variation in Cape fur seals’
vocalisations. Such investigations help understand how acoustic communication
in marine mammals is shaped by ecological drivers.
About the presenter:
Mathilde Martin is a biologist, specialist in animal behaviour, and more
specifically in acoustic communication in terrestrial and marine mammals. Her
research focuses on deciphering what information is encoded in their
vocalisations and how vocal signals can modulate socials interactions, in
relation to the species’ ecological constraints. Her approach combines audio
recordings in the field, analyses of the acoustic structure of vocalisations
and experimental tests on wild animals. Mathilde first explored the social
calls exchanged during mother-calf interactions in humpback whales. Then,
during her PhD at the Institute of Neurosciences Paris-Saclay, she investigated
several aspects of the acoustic communication network of the Cape fur seal,
such as the transmission of individual information, male-male or mother-pup
individual vocal recognition systems, as well as the impact of noise pollution
on the behaviour of these animals. She is now a postdoctoral researcher at the
University of Zurich where she is studying the role of meerkats’ close calls in
the maintenance of group cohesion during foraging.
Open access to this article is made temporarily available in the weeks around
the presentation and can be found here:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mms.13084
<https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mms.13084>. Current SMM members
have access to all Marine Mammal Science papers.
Missed a presentation or want to share this series with a friend? All previous
Editors' Select presentations are recorded and archived on our YouTube channel
here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUc78IynQlubS2DVS1VZoplf_t42-yZOO.
We hope to see you there!
--
Theresa-Anne Tatom-Naecker, Ph.D. Candidate
Sophia Volzke, Ph.D. Candidate
Clinton Factheu, Ph.D. Candidate
Student Members-at-Large (SMaLs)
The Society for Marine Mammalogy

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