Beluga Whale Migration Timing and Dive Behavior in Cumberland Sound, 1998-2008

Satellite telemetry data tracks the endangered beluga whale population in Cumberland Sound, Nunavut, across two time periods. The data was collected by Kasey P. Ryan and published on figshare in 2026. It likely contains records of dive depth, location, and environmental variables to analyze migration patterns and foraging shifts.

Use Cases

• Modeling migration timing based on latitudinal thresholds and sea ice formation mentioned in the description.
• Analyzing seasonal variation in dive behavior relative to day of year and ice cover.
• Investigating prey shift from Arctic cod to capelin based on the proportion of deep versus shallow dives.
• Comparing movement behavior between distinct time periods (1998–1999 vs. 2006–2008).

Strengths

• Data spans two distinct time periods (1998–1999 and 2006–2008), enabling decadal comparison.
• Analysis includes multiple factors: seasonal progression, time period, ice cover, bottom depth, and sex.
• License is CC-BY-4.0, permitting open sharing and adaptation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is contained in a DOCX file (2.0 MB), which may require extraction to a structured format for analysis.

Provenance

Source

Kasey P. Ryan via figshare.

Collection Method

Satellite telemetry data collection and mixed-effects model analysis.

Time Range

1998–1999 and 2006–2008.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-26 04:37:16; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Cumberland Sound, Nunavut, Canada.