Biology subjects

Mine, J. G.

Publications and source records attributed to Mine, J. G..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

WhaleSonic: Recordings of cetacean vocal behaviour with hydrophone arrays in Northern Norway

Killer whales, humpback whales, fin whales, and sperm whales converged in a fjord system in Northern Norway during the 2023-2024 winter, where whale watching and fishing vessels add to the acoustic scene. Cetaceans are intensely studied for their acoustic behaviour and communication, and the co-occurrence of four species in confined waters offers a unique opportunity to record them with hydrophone arrays. We present WhaleSonic, a raw acoustic dataset recorded with two synchronised array systems. Four drifting buoys, each carrying a tetrahedral hydrophone array, captured 78 hours of calibrated recordings; seven bottom-mounted hydrophones yielded 52 days of continuous data. Both systems are synchronised to UTC (<1 us and 3-7 ms) and positioned to 2 m accuracy. Transmission experiments and sound velocity measurements provide in-situ ground truth. All data are in physical units and a unified coordinate system, self-documented in HDF5 files, and published with open-source tools. WhaleSonic supports the development of multichannel algorithms for source separation, localisation, sound field analysis, and group communication in free-ranging cetaceans.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2024

Predictability of next elements in chimpanzee gesture sequences

Recent research has produced evidence for basic combinatorial abilities in the vocal systems of different animal species. Here, we investigate the structure of gesture sequences in Eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) to detect whether gestural communication shows non-random combinations and how combinatorial rules influence predictability. Gesture, as compared to vocalization, offers greater flexibility in how signals are combined--for example overlapping in time -- and as the parsing of signals into sequences is dependent on researcher decisions, we employ a multiverse approach, considering four different definitions of what constitutes a sequence based on varying time thresholds. Our results indicate that sequences tend to be short (even with the most liberal time-window) and that transitions between some gesture types occur more frequently than expected by chance, with some transitions showing significant association across all time-windows. These transitions often involve repetition, suggesting persistence as a key aspect of chimpanzee gestural sequences. Information about previous gestures reduced uncertainty in predicting subsequent gestures. The order of gestures within sequences appears to be less critical than their cooccurrence, challenging assumptions based on the linear patterning derived from vocal communication. Our findings highlight the importance of methodological choices in sequence definition and suggest that chimpanzee gestural communication is characterised by a mix of predictability and flexibility, with implications for understanding the evolution of complex communication systems.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2023

Vocal-visual combinations in wild chimpanzees

Human communication is strikingly multi-modal, relying on vocal utterances combined with visual gestures, facial expressions and more. Recent efforts to describe multi-modal signal production in our ape relatives have shed important light on the evolutionary trajectory of this core hallmark of human language. However, whilst promising, a systematic quantification of primate signal production which filters out random combinations produced across modalities is currently lacking. Here, through recording the communicative behaviour of wild chimpanzees from the Kibale forest, Uganda we address this issue and generate the first repertoire of non-random combined vocal and visual components. Using collocation analysis, we identify more than 100 vocal-visual combinations which occur more frequently than expected by chance. We also probe how multi-modal production varies in the population, finding no differences between individuals as a function of age, sex or rank. The number of visual components exhibited alongside vocalizations was, however, associated with vocalization type and duration. We demonstrate that chimpanzees produce a vast array of combined vocal and visual components, exhibiting a hitherto underappreciated level of combinatorial complexity. We conclude that a multi-modal approach is crucial to accurately representing the communicative abilities of non-human primates.

animal behavior and cognition↗