Strange attractor of a narwhal (Monodon monoceros)

Detecting structures within the continuous diving behavior of marine animals is challenging, and no universal framework is available. We captured such diverse structures using chaos theory. By applying time-delay embedding to exceptionally long dive records (83 d) from the narwhal, we reconstructed the state-space portrait. Using measures of chaos, we detected a diurnal pattern and its seasonal modulation, classified data, and found how sea-ice appearance shifts time budgets. There is more near-surface rest but deeper dives at solar noon, and more intense diving during twilight and at night but to shallower depths (likely following squid); sea-ice appearance reduces rest. The introduced geometrical approach is simple to implement and potentially helpful for mapping and labeling long-term behavioral data, identifying differences between individual animals and species, and detecting perturbations.

• Publication year

  2022

• Venue

  bioRxiv

• Publication date

  2022-05-28

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Computer Science, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010432PMID 36136974PMCID 9498936
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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