DOI: 10.5061/dryad.dr7sqvbc3
title: Data from: The diffusion of cooperative and solo bubble net feeding in Canadian Pacific humpback whales

description: Animal culture, in which information and behaviours are acquired and
 shared through social networks by social learning, is a form of
 biodiversity with intrinsic and practical value. Cooperative foraging, a
 mutualistic resource acquisition behaviour observed across diverse taxa,
 is strongly connected to social networks via behavioural states, cues, and
 often social learning, as it typically involves high interaction rates.
 Understanding the distribution, diffusion and learning mechanisms of such
 cooperative behaviours is an important but understudied aspect of nonhuman
 culture. Bubble net feeding (‘bubble netting’) is a specialised foraging
 technique practised by certain humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)
 populations globally. Over 20 years in the northern Canadian Pacific, we
 observed the diffusion of two forms: social cooperative and independent,
 or ‘solo’, bubble netting. Network-based diffusion analysis – a tool to
 test for social learning – finds strong evidence for social learning of
 bubble netting when the overall social network is used, even after
 accounting for traits such as site fidelity and sex (10.6 x 103 to 35.4 x
 103 times more support for social versus asocial learning; p &lt;
 0.0001). A homophily check using pre-acquisition association data returned
 ambiguous results, likely due to the inherent sociality of this
 cooperative foraging behaviour. Nonetheless, the rapid diffusion of bubble
 netting is clearly important for population viability and should inform
 conservation planning for this threatened population.
description: # Data from: The diffusion of cooperative and solo bubble net feeding in
 Canadian Pacific humpback whales Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.dr7sqvbc3](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dr7sqvbc3) ##
 Description of the data and file structure A network-based diffusion
 analysis of humpback whale bubble net feeding in the Kitimat Fjord System
 (NE Pacific). Code and data also stored on
 GitHub: [https://github.com/eadinomahony/humpback-bubble-netting-NBDA](https://github.com/eadinomahony/humpback-bubble-netting-NBDA)  Recommended citation: #### **Wray, J.^+^, O'Mahony, É.^+^, Baer, G., Robinson, N., Dundas, A., Gaggiotti, O.E., Rendell, L., Keen, E.M. 2025.** ***The diffusion of cooperative and solo bubble net feeding in Canadian Pacific humpback whales.*** **Proceedings of the Royal Society B.** ^+^Shared lead authorship. Maintained by Éadin N. O'Mahony ([enao1@st-andrews.ac.uk](mailto:enao1@st-andrews.ac.uk)). A project in collaboration with the Gitga'at First Nation and the North Coast Cetacean Society ([www.bcwhales.org](http://www.bcwhales.org/)). We thank the Gitga'at First Nation, Kitasoo/Xai'xais First Nations, the Haisla First Nation and the Heiltsuk First Nation for their stewardship and collaboration. This work was carried out through a research agreement between the North Coast Cetacean Society and the Gitga'at Oceans and Lands Department; and data was collected under the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) research permit DFO XR 83 2014. ### Positionality and reflexivity statement We comprise an international group of researchers with a range of expertise in various biological disciplines who are collaborating on this project asking questions about sociality and culture in humpback whales foraging within the traditional territories of the Gitga’at First Nation, the Kitasoo and Xai’xais First Nations, the Gitxaała First Nation and the Haisla First Nation. We have an equal gender balance but come from a diverse set of backgrounds and perspectives. Authors NR and AD are Gitga’at members who have been dedicated to the study and protection of marine mammals in Gitga’at territory for approximately two decades. Author JW is the co-founder and CEO of the North Coast Cetacean Society (NCCS) and EMK, ÉOM and GB are researchers within NCCS, which has been collaborating with the Gitga’at First Nation as an organisation since 2001, when permission to conduct research in the territory was granted and specific research agreements established. Authors EMK, ÉOM, GB, JW, LR and OEG recognise our intersecting social identities – we are all white and either living and working as settlers in Canada, or based at research institutions in Europe, from where we travel to spend time working with the Gitga’at in their unceded territory. We are striving to decolonise our research practices and acknowledge that we have much work to do on this still. Authors EMK, ÉOM, LR and OEG work in an academic system which affords us unearned privileges through its significant history of colonisation. All authors recognise that the biological sciences strive for objectivity, but we collectively believe it is critical in the process to decolonise ecology and evolution research that we address our inherent biases and belief systems. We therefore wish to state that we are motivated by a deep care for Earth’s biodiversity, and in particular hope to see cetacean species co-existing with our own in perpetuity. We advocate for other researchers within ecology and evolution research (and beyond) to self-reflect on their own positionalities and relationships to land and community. We thank the Gitga’at Oceans and Lands Department and the Gitga’at community for their continued support and collaboration on whale research and conservation. ### Files and variables #### File: ILV-update.csv **Description:** Individual level variables for unique humpback whales documented in the Kitimat Fjord System of British Columbia, Canada. Where 'NA' occurs indicates that humpback whale was, for example, not a solo bubble netter or we do not have a blow sample and therefore the genetic sex of that individual. ##### Variables * id = unique whale identifier * n.years = number of years that whale has been observed * n.sits = number of sightings * grp_mean = the mean group size across all sightings of that individual * stage_og = life stage (A = adult,M = mother) * first = first year seen * SF.total = total site fidelity * earliest = earliest day of year sighting * latest = latest day of year sighting * arrival = mean arrival day of year to fjord system * departure = mean departure day of year * min.stay = shortest stay duration * SSFI = site fidelity index * mom = 0 - never documented with calf, mom - documented before with calf * n.calves = number of calves in total  * bnfe = 1 - known bubble netter, 0 - not known to bubble net * bnf.year1 = first year seen bubble netting * bnf.sit1 = first bubble netting sighting ID * bnf.demon = bubble netter demonstrator in NBDA * bnf.rate = rate of bubble netting observed * bnfesolo = 1 - known solo bubble netter, 0 - not known to solo bubble net * solo.year1 = first year seen solo bubble netting * solo.sit1 = first solo BNF sighting * fe.rate = overall foraging rate * years = years seen * momyears = years in which seen with calf * bnfyears = years in which observed bubble netting * bnfsits = bubble netting sighting IDs * soloyears = years seen solo BNF * solosits = solo bubble netting sighting IDs * sits = all sighting IDs for that whale * ROA = ranked order of acquisition * SOLO_ROA = ranked order of acquisition for solo BNF * Sample.Name = blow sample identifier * Genetic.Sex = blow sample determined sex * Sex = female = -1 while male = 1 #### File: Sightings.csv **Description:** Description of each unique sighting ID (date, station, group size, number of bubble netters, if the sighting included a mom / a calf, whether it was a bubble netting event or not and whether it was a feeding event or not, and what the overall group behaviour (bhv) was). Latitude, longitude, time of sighting and km distance into the fjord ('km.out') were variables not used in the analysis of this study and therefore are left as NA (not applicable) #### File: events.csv **Description:** Each row represents a unique whale (id) within a sighting (groupid). Other variables include the date (ymd), year, month, day, day of year (doy), year fraction (yfrac), time (as NA because not used for this analysis), data collection platform (platform), group id for that sighting (group), number of whales in the group (n), number of bubble netters in the group (n_bnf), latitude and longitude also as NA because they are not used in the analysis, behavioural state (bhvr) and life stage (stage, where A is adult, M is mother and 0 is unknown). ## Code/software R scripts available here: [https://github.com/eadinomahony/humpback-bubble-netting-NBDA/tree/main](https://github.com/eadinomahony/humpback-bubble-netting-NBDA/tree/main) ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * [https://github.com/eadinomahony/humpback-bubble-netting-NBDA/tree/main](https://github.com/eadinomahony/humpback-bubble-netting-NBDA/tree/main)