Theme: Times are changing

Where the whales sing

Wildlife species are increasingly being exposed to disturbances resulting from human activity. These disturbances may be unintentional, unavoidable, or in some instances the only way to help us understand an animal population. Unfortunately, such exposures may cause individuals to change their natural behaviour. This is something we need to avoid, but first, we need to figure out what the baseline behaviours and demographics of such populations are.

This is where data comes in. We require data to help us infer and interpret animal behaviour and demographics. Yet, these data are typically complicated and the answers we want are obscured. Asking whales to fill out a census is a little difficult! In this talk, I will discuss two case studies highlighting how statistics can help us answer questions about animal behaviour and population demographics. For example, what effect, if any, does military sonar have on the behaviour of beaked whales? How might we use passive acoustic data to estimate the number of sperm whales?

Programme