DOI: 10.5061/dryad.b5gf344
title: Data from: Subarctic singers: Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) song structure and progression from an Icelandic feeding ground during winter

description: Humpback whale songs associated with breeding behaviors are increasingly
 reported outside of traditional low latitude breeding grounds. Songs from
 a subarctic feeding ground during the winter were quantitatively
 characterized to investigate the structure and temporal changes of the
 songs at such an atypical location. Recordings were collected from 26.
 January to 12. March, 2011, using bottom mounted recorders. Humpback songs
 were detected on 91% of the recording days with peak singing activities
 during 9.–26. February. The majority of the recordings included multiple
 chorusing singers. The songs were characterized by a) common static themes
 which transitioned consistently to predictable themes, b) shifting themes
 which occurred less predictably and c) rare themes. A set median sequence
 was found for four different periods (sets) of recordings (approximately 1
 week each). The set medians were highly similar and formed a single
 cluster indicating that the sequences of themes sung in this area belonged
 to a single cluster of songs despite of the variation caused by the
 shifting themes. These subarctic winter songs could, thus, represent a
 characteristic song type for this area which is comparable to extensively
 studied songs from traditional low latitude breeding grounds. An increase
 in the number of themes per sequence was observed throughout the recording
 period including minor changes in the application of themes in the songs;
 indicating a gradual song progression. The results confirm that continual
 singing of sophisticated songs occur during the breeding season in the
 subarctic. In addition to being a well-established summer feeding ground
 the study area appears to be an important overwintering site for humpback
 whales delaying or canceling their migration where males engage in active
 sexual displays, i.e. singing. Importantly, such singing activity on a
 shared feeding ground likely aids the cultural transmission of songs in
 the North Atlantic.
description: Metadata - Phrases and
 total song detectionsThe spread sheet
 contains 4 different datasets each located in a separate sheet. The first
 sheet contains all the acoustic sound files detected with the automatic
 humpback whale song detector ("All_detections"). In the second
 sheet named "Phrases" there is a subsample of humpback whale
 song files which was created from the whole dataset. This subsample was
 used to analyse phrase occurrence and sequences of phrases. The third
 sheet named "AnalysedSoundFiles_subsample" contains a random
 subsample of sound files from the sheet "Phrases". This
 subsample was used to measure the average signal to noise ratio of the
 song units in the sound files, including the average received signal level
 to investigate differences in these values in analysed sound files between
 periods within the total study period. The forth sheet named
 "TotalFiles_Randosubsample" contains a random subsample of the
 total detected files from the sheet "All_detections". That data
 was used to investigate the effect of different received signal levels and
 SNR on the automatic acoustic detector.Metadata_PONE-D-17-40959.xlsx