For humpback whales, the mother–calf pair is the only stable social unit with calves following their mother after birth and staying in close proximity. This following strategy ensures the maintenance of such close proximity between the mother and her calf, with calves benefiting from maternal protection and care. Using multi-sensor tags, we recorded the diving behavior of calves at three different age-classes (C1, C2, C3) to assess how calves developed in their natural environment at an early stage of their life. From 29 deployments on calves, we extracted the diving metrics from two C1 neonate calves, eight C2 calves, and 19 C3 calves, and we found that some diving metrics (dive duration, time at bottom, maximal depth, or maximal dive duration) differed among calves’ age-classes. On 23 tagged mothers, we analyzed if their diving profiles also varied depending on calf’s age-class. We showed that only two dive metrics of mothers varied with the age of their own calves (time spent at the bottom, and time interval between dives), but all others were not reliant on the calf’s age. Simultaneous deployments on seven mother–calf pairs in 2016 and 2017 revealed highly synchronized dives, with mothers leading the diving pattern. This work represents an extensive study investigating the diving behavior in humpback whale mother–calf pairs on their breeding ground.

中文翻译：

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座头鲸母体和幼崽在繁殖地潜水行为的个体发育和同步性

对于座头鲸来说，母婴对是唯一稳定的社会单位，幼崽在出生后跟随母亲并靠近。以下策略确保母亲和她的小牛之间保持如此紧密的距离，小牛受益于母体保护和护理。使用多传感器标签，我们记录了三个不同年龄段（C1、C2、C3）的小牛的潜水行为，以评估小牛在其生命早期阶段在自然环境中的发育情况。从小腿上的 29 次部署中，我们从 2 只 C1 新生小腿、8 只 C2 小腿和 19 只 C3 小腿中提取了潜水指标，我们发现一些潜水指标（潜水持续时间、底部时间、最大深度或最大潜水持续时间）不同在小牛的年龄段。在 23 位标记的母亲中，我们分析了他们的潜水资料是否也因小牛的年龄层而异。我们发现，只有两个母亲的潜水指标会随着自己小牛的年龄而变化（在底部花费的时间，以及潜水之间的时间间隔），但所有其他指标都不依赖于小牛的年龄。2016 年和 2017 年对 7 对母牛的同时部署揭示了高度同步的潜水，其中母亲引领潜水模式。这项工作代表了一项广泛的研究，调查了座头鲸母鲸对在其繁殖地的潜水行为。2016 年和 2017 年对 7 对母牛的同时部署揭示了高度同步的潜水，其中母亲引领潜水模式。这项工作代表了一项广泛的研究，调查了座头鲸母鲸对在其繁殖地的潜水行为。2016 年和 2017 年对 7 对母牛的同时部署揭示了高度同步的潜水，其中母亲引领潜水模式。这项工作代表了一项广泛的研究，调查了座头鲸母鲸对在其繁殖地的潜水行为。