@article {58226,
	title = {Acoustic monitoring on a humpback whale ( <i>Megaptera novaeangliae</i>) feeding ground shows continual singing into late spring},
	year = {2004},
	abstract = {<p>Singing by males is a major feature of the mating system of humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae (Borowski). Although a few songs have been opportunistically recorded on the whales\&$\#$39; high\&ndash;latitude feeding grounds, singing in these regions was thought to be only sporadic. We report results from the first continuous acoustic monitoring of a humpback whale feeding ground (off Cape Cod, MA, USA) in spring. Using autonomous sea\&ndash;floor recording systems, we found singing on a daily basis over the entire 25 day monitoring period, from 14 May to 7 June 2000. For much of the period, song was recorded 24 h per day. These results, combined with evidence for aseasonal conceptions in whaling catch data, suggest that the humpback whale breeding season should no longer be considered as confined to lower\&ndash;latitude regions in winter. Rather, we suggest breeding extends geographically and temporally onto feeding grounds into at least spring and early summer. Singing at these times represents either low\&ndash;cost opportunistic advertising by (perhaps relatively few) males to court females that failed to conceive during the winter, and/or possibly an intrasexual display.</p>
},
	keywords = {humpback whale; song; mating systems; North Atlantic},
	doi = {10.1098/rspb.2004.2699},
	url = {https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2004.2699},
	author = {Clark, Christopher W. and Clapham, Phillip J.}
}
