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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Royal Society Open Science

Animal-borne accelerometers do not reliably identify social calls from tagged humpback whales

  • Jeanne M. Shearer1
  • Susan E. Parks2
  • Douglas Gillespie3
  • K. Alex Shorter4
  • David N. Wiley5
  • Melanie A. Smith2
  • Frants Havmand Jensen1,2,6
6 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University 1 , Roskilde, Denmark
  2. 2Biology Department, Syracuse University 2 , Syracuse, NY, USA
  3. 3Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews 3 , St Andrews, UK
  4. 4Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan 4 , Ann Arbor, MI, USA
  5. 5National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary 5 , Scituate, MA, USA
  6. 6Department of Biology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 6 , Woods Hole, MA, USA
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Abstract

Understanding which animal produces a sound is essential for animal communication studies and for estimating cue rates for passive acoustic monitoring. In marine environments, biologging tags are used to study vocal behaviour, but efficient underwater sound transmission makes it challenging to identify whether the call is produced by the tagged (focal) animal. In low-frequency baleen whales, animal-borne accelerometers on acoustic recording tags have recorded signals corresponding to vocalizations. Here, we test whether high sample rate accelerometers could estimate focal status with validation datasets in which all members of humpback whale feeding groups were tagged concurrently. Accelerometer signals were only rarely associated with known calls from the tagged animal (3%). In addition, high-amplitude calls from nearby conspecifics were occasionally associated with accelerometer signals, including nine calls present on the accelerometer of two tags simultaneously. Calls were present on the accelerometer only when the acoustic received level was high. Our results indicate that source level and accelerometer noise from movement limit the utility of identifying focal calls from accelerometers, but also highlight the risk of false detections for high-amplitude calls. Group-level tagging provides an alternative way to differentiate calls and investigate communication dynamics in baleen whale social groups.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{shearer2026animalborne,
  title = {{Animal-borne accelerometers do not reliably identify social calls from tagged humpback whales}},
  author = {Jeanne M. Shearer and Susan E. Parks and Douglas Gillespie and K. Alex Shorter and David N. Wiley and Melanie A. Smith and Frants Havmand Jensen},
  journal = {Royal Society Open Science},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.1098/rsos.252447},
  url = {https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/9/252447/483412/Animal-borne-accelerometers-do-not-reliably},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Animal-borne accelerometers do not reliably identify social calls from tagged humpback whales
AU  - Jeanne M. Shearer
AU  - Susan E. Parks
AU  - Douglas Gillespie
AU  - K. Alex Shorter
AU  - David N. Wiley
AU  - Melanie A. Smith
AU  - Frants Havmand Jensen
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/30
JO  - Royal Society Open Science
DO  - 10.1098/rsos.252447
UR  - https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/9/252447/483412/Animal-borne-accelerometers-do-not-reliably
AB  - Understanding which animal produces a sound is essential for animal communication studies and for estimating cue rates for passive acoustic monitoring. In marine environments, biologging tags are used to study vocal behaviour, but efficient underwater sound transmission makes it challenging to identify whether the call is produced by the tagged (focal) animal. In low-frequency baleen whales, animal-borne accelerometers on acoustic recording tags have recorded signals corresponding to vocalizations. Here, we test whether high sample rate accelerometers could estimate focal status with validation datasets in which all members of humpback whale feeding groups were tagged concurrently. Accelerometer signals were only rarely associated with known calls from the tagged animal (3%). In addition, high-amplitude calls from nearby conspecifics were occasionally associated with accelerometer signals, including nine calls present on the accelerometer of two tags simultaneously. Calls were present on the accelerometer only when the acoustic received level was high. Our results indicate that source level and accelerometer noise from movement limit the utility of identifying focal calls from accelerometers, but also highlight the risk of false detections for high-amplitude calls. Group-level tagging provides an alternative way to differentiate calls and investigate communication dynamics in baleen whale social groups.
SN  - 2054-5703
ER  -