Humpback Whale Song Recordings from a Subarctic Icelandic Winter

Audio recordings of humpback whale songs were collected from a subarctic Icelandic feeding ground over 46 days in winter 2011. The dataset includes quantitative characterizations of song structure, identifying common static themes, shifting themes, and rare themes. Songs were detected on 91% of recording days, with peak activity between February 9 and 26.

Use Cases

• Analyze the sequence and transition patterns of common static themes and shifting themes to model song structure.
• Investigate temporal song progression by tracking changes in the number of themes per sequence across the recording period.
• Compare the set median sequences from four weekly periods to assess song clustering and variation in this subarctic location.
• Study the occurrence of rare themes and their relationship to the more predictable theme categories within the songs.

Strengths

• Recordings span a 46-day period from January 26 to March 12, 2011, capturing temporal dynamics.
• Songs were detected on 91% of recording days, indicating consistent data collection of the target phenomenon.
• Analysis includes quantitative characterization of song themes, including common static, shifting, and rare categories.

Limitations

• The dataset is temporally limited to a single winter season (2011), preventing analysis of inter-annual variation.
• Recordings are from a specific subarctic location, which may limit generalizability to songs from traditional breeding grounds.
• Sample size and specific row/column counts are unknown, making it difficult to assess the dataset's scale for machine learning.

Provenance

Source

Dryad digital repository.

Collection Method

Recordings collected using bottom-mounted recorders deployed in the study area.

Time Range

January 26 to March 12, 2011.

Freshness

Last updated in 2020.

Geography

Subarctic Icelandic feeding ground.