Claire Garrigue

• PhD
• Scientist at Opération Cétacés

Humpback whale song is a culturally transmitted behavior. Human language, which is also culturally transmitted, has statistically coherent parts whose frequency distribution follows a power law. These properties facilitate learning and may therefore arise because of their contribution to the faithful transmission of language over multiple cultural...

Variation in reproductive success is a fundamental prerequisite for sexual selection to act upon a trait. Assessing such variation is crucial in understanding a species’ mating system and offers insights into population growth. Parentage analyses in cetaceans are rare, and the underlying forces of sexual selection acting on their mating behaviours...

How animals navigate during long-distance migration remains a mystery. Many theories have been proposed ¹ (Keeton, 1979), with the Earth’s magnetic field emerging as a clear potential source of orientational information for navigational decision-making across diverse taxa ² (Putman, 2022). Yet, the mechanics involved in magnetic navigation remain u...

The field of marine mammal conservation has dramatically benefited from the rapid advancement of methods to assess the reproductive physiology of individuals and populations from steroid hormones isolated from minimally invasive skin–blubber biopsy samples. Historically, this vital information was only available from complete anatomical and physiol...

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a highly polymorphic gene family that is crucial in immunity, and its diversity can be effectively used as a fitness marker for populations. Despite this, MHC remains poorly characterised in non‐model species (e.g., cetaceans: whales, dolphins and porpoises) as high gene copy number variation, especiall...

Context The dynamic habitat use by dugongs (Dugong dugon) in small coral reef lagoon systems spatially limited by tides is not well understood and has hampered adaptive management. Aims We investigated how dugongs locally used a high conservation value coral-reef lagoon system during different seasons and tides to support local management. Method...

The dugong (Dugong dugon), a large marine mammal herbivore of the Indo-Pacific, is vulnerable to extinction at a global scale due to a combination of human-related threats including habitat degradation. The species forages on seagrass habitats (marine phanerogams) and plays a key role in the functioning and sensitivity of these declining coastal ec...

Context Assessing the distribution and abundance of marine fauna and the ecological status of coastal and pelagic ecosystems is key to biodiversity conservation, but the monitoring of mobile marine species raises multiple logistical and financial challenges. Aims The project describes the distribution, abundance and taxonomic assemblage of several...

Context Strandings are an important source of information for estimating marine mammal biodiversity, particularly in data-sparse ocean basins such as Oceania. Aims Here, we report on knowledge acquired from 218 stranding events recorded in the waters of New Caledonia (1877–2022). Methods We investigated spatio-temporal distribution, stable isotop...

Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) sing a long, stereotyped, and culturally transmitted song display. While song likely functions in sexual selection, whether it is primarily directed at females and/or males is still debated. Most males within a single population sing the same, slowly evolving song type. However, multiple humpback whale...

Strandings of marine mammals have been recorded since the 1990s in New Caledonia. The dugong is the most frequently stranded species in New Caledonia (n = 65 to date). Whenever possible, samples were collected on carcasses (skin, stomach contents, teeth, etc.). Four stomach contents were available for analysis. They were analysed to identify the sp...

The evolutionary response to long-term exploitation results in substantial changes in the demography of a population and can drive traits away from their naturally selected evolutionary optima. Little is known about how demographic processes resulting from commercial whaling shaped patterns of sexual selection in baleen whales across time, and what...

New Caledonia is home to one of the largest remaining populations of dugongs (Dugong dugon) and is located at the southeastern limit of the species’ range. Local knowledge suggests that current levels of removal due to anthropogenic pressures are unsustainable, while trends suggest an ongoing decline in the population. Considering this unfavorable...

Among animal species, the songs of male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are a rare example of social learning between entire populations. Understanding fine-scale similarity in song patterns and structural features will better clarify how accurately songs are learned during inter-population transmission. Here, six distinct song types (2009...

Mobile marine species display complex and nonstationary habitat use patterns that require understanding to design effective management measures. In this study, the spatio-temporal habitat use dynamics of the vulnerable dugong (Dugong dugon) were modelled from 16 satellite-tagged individuals in the coral reef lagoonal ecosystems of New Caledonia, So...

Dugong (Dugong dugon) New Caledonia subpopulation has most recently been assessed for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2022. Dugong dugon New Caledonia subpopulation is listed as Endangered under criteria C2a(ii).

Culture presents a second inheritance system by which innovations can be transmitted between generations and among individuals. Some vocal behaviours present compelling examples of cultural evolution. Where modifications accumulate over time, such a process can become cumulative cultural evolution. The existence of cumulative cultural evolution in...

We describe the development and application of a new convolutional neural network-based photo-identification algorithm for individual humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). The method uses a Densely Connected Convolutional Network (DenseNet) to extract special keypoints of an image of the ventral surface of the fluke and then a separate DenseNet...

Despite their ecological role and multiple contributions to human societies, the distribution of Indo-Pacific seagrasses remains poorly known in many places. Herein, we outline a hierarchical spatially-explicit assessment framework to derive nation-wide synoptic knowledge of the distribution of seagrass species and communities. We applied the frame...

The short‐term response of humpback whales to boat approach and remote biopsy sampling was investigated in a breeding ground according to age‐class, sex, female reproductive status, social context, sampling system, habitat, and repeated sampling with more than 20 years of data. In a total of 2,248 observed behavioral responses to biopsy sampling, 5...

Baseline local scale assessment of the use of a mining port area by dugongs using drones and telemetry tracking

Machine learning algorithms are often used to model and predict animal habitat selection the relationships between animal occurrences and habitat characteristics. For broadly distributed species, habitat selection often varies among populations and regions; thus, it would seem preferable to fit region- or population-specific models of habitat selecti...

Understanding population structure and habitat use of poorly known cetacean species is a first step toward scientifically informed management decisions. In the southern range of New Caledonia (South Pacific), a long-term dataset of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) encounters primarily during winter seasons 1997 to 2019 (473 group...

Seven Longman's beaked whales mass stranded in New Caledonia in November 2013, of which 4 ultimately died, in a first worldwide event reported for this poorly known Ziphioid species. Teeth were extracted, collected and thoroughly cleaned of gum tissue from 3 females ranging from juvenile to adult and one adult male. These were sectioned (crown-root...

The migration routes of wide-ranging species can be difficult to study, particularly at sea. In the western South Pacific, migratory routes of humpback whales between breeding and feeding areas are unclear. Male humpback whales sing a population-specific song, which can be used to match singers on migration to a breeding population. To investigate...

Little is known about how the Vulnerable dugong Dugong dugon uses coral reef lagoons despite the importance of these habitats throughout much of its vast range. We used GPS satellite tracking systems to explore the space use of 12 dugongs at 3 locations in the coral reef lagoons of the main island of New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific: Cap Goul...

Humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae were severely depleted by commercial whaling. Understanding key factors in their recovery is a crucial step for their conservation world- wide. In Oceania, the Chesterfield-Bellona archipelago was a primary whaling site in the 19th cen- tury, yet has been left almost unaffected by anthropogenic activities sinc...

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are known for their nearshore distribution during the breeding season, but their pelagic habitat use patterns remain mostly unexplored. From 2016 to 2018, 18 humpback whales were equipped with depth-recording satellite tags (SPLASH10) to shed light on environmental and social drivers of seamount association...

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are known for their nearshore distribution during the breeding season, but their pelagic habitat use patterns remain mostly unexplored. In New Caledonia, an archipelago located in the western South Pacific, several offshore seamounts and banks are visited by humpback whales. Yet, the reasons why whales would...

Cultural transmission of behaviour is important in a wide variety of vertebrate taxa from birds to humans. Vocal traditions and vocal learning provide a strong foundation for studying culture and its transmission in both humans and cetaceans. Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) perform complex, culturally transmitted song displays that ca...

Long‐term monitoring is a prerequisite to understanding and protecting long‐lived species such as cetaceans. In New Caledonia, South Pacific, an endangered sub‐population of humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) seasonally congregates for mating and nursing during the austral winter. For more than two decades, dedicated surveys have been condu...

In the context of a changing climate, understanding the environmental drivers of marine megafauna distribution is important for conservation success. The extent of humpback whale breeding habitats and the impact of temperature variation on their availability are both unknown. We used 19 years of dedicated survey data from seven countries and territ...

Biodiversity of the South of New Caledonia

Aim Accurate predictions of cetacean distributions are essential to their conservation but are limited by statistical challenges and a paucity of data. This study aimed at comparing the capacity of various statistical algorithms to deal with biases commonly found in nonsystematic cetacean surveys and to evaluate the potential for citizen science da...

Humpback whales were severely depleted by commercial whaling, and understanding key factors of their recovery is a crucial step for their conservation worldwide. In Oceania, the Chesterfield-Bellona archipelago was identified as one of the primary humpback whale whaling sites of the 19th century. However, given its remoteness, it has remained almos...

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) congregate to breed during the austral winter near tropical islands of the South Pacific (Oceania). It has long been assumed that humpback whales from Oceania migrate primarily to Antarctic feeding grounds directly south (International Whaling Commission Management Areas V and VI); however, there are few rec...

Obtaining direct measurements to characterise ecosystem function can be hindered by remote or inaccessible regions. Next-generation satellite tags that inform increasingly sophisticated movement models, and the min-iaturisation of animal-borne loggers, have enabled the use of animals as tools to collect habitat data in remote environments, such as...

Southern Hemisphere humpback whales breed in tropical waters and migrate to Antarctica to forage. While the breeding grounds are well defined, the population structure on Antarctic feeding grounds is poorly described. The Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is of particular interest, where rapidly changing environmental conditions could alter prey di...

The probability of an aquatic animal being available for detection is typically <1. Accounting for covariates that reduce the probability of detection is important for obtaining robust estimates of the population abundance and determining its status and trends. The dugong (Dugong dugon) is a bottom-feeding marine mammal and a seagrass community spe...

GPS satellite points. (DOCX)

Details of dugongs and fitted instruments. (DOCX)

Methods used for the Dugong Secchi Disk experiment. (DOCX)

Dugong aerial survey methodology. (DOCX)

Data to reproduce availability bias estimates for Torres Strait. (DOCX)

Abundance estimates. (DOCX)

Maternal habitat preferences of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are well documented from decades of coastal research but oceanic areas have received less attention. Whales breeding in New Caledonia occupy both ecosystems: a coastal reef complex (South Lagoon) and oceanic seamounts (Southern Seamounts). Generalized additive models were appl...

Estimating life history parameters is needed to understand the population dynamics of a species. This information is crucial to apprehend the recovery of baleen whales that have been decimated by the commercial whaling of the previous century. Yet, these parameters are difficult to estimate for most of the whale populations as long term data is rar...

Humpback whale’s (Megaptera novaeangliae) habitat use in low-latitude breeding grounds is well documented from decades of coastal research. Yet, the use of pelagic habitats during breeding and migration has only recently been discovered. In New Caledonia, several seamounts and banks are now considered important areas for humpback whales but the rea...

Context Sound understanding of temporal changes in the abundance of wildlife species is required for assessing their status and for effective conservation and management. In New Caledonia, a single baseline aerial survey of dugongs in 2003 estimated a population of 2026 (± 553 s.e.) individuals. A second, similar survey in 2008 produced a lower est...

The description of genetic population structure over a species’ geographic range can provide insights into its evolutionary history and also support effective management efforts. Assessments for globally distributed species are rare, however, requiring significant international coordination and collaboration. The global distribution of demographica...

Seven Longman’s beaked whales (Indopacetus pacificus) stranded together in southern New Caledonia on 16 November 2013 (one adult male, two adult females, two subadult females, one calf, and one unknown). At this time, we have no evidence to suggest that this event was an “atypical” mass stranding associated with active naval sonar or other anthropo...

Use of a Sit-down Personal Watercraft to Safely and Quickly Catch Dugongs (Dugong dugon) in the coral reef lagoons of New Caledonia

The humpback whale population of New Caledonia appears to display a novel migratory pattern characterized by multiple directions, long migratory paths and frequent pauses over seamounts and other shallow geographical features. Using satellite-monitored radio tags, we tracked 34 whales for between 5 and 110 days, travelling between 270 and 8540 km o...

Capture−recapture studies offer a powerful tool to assess abundance, survival and population rate of change (λ). A previous capture−recapture study, based on DNA profiles, esti- mated that the IUCN-listed Endangered Oceania population of humpback whales had a super- population size of 4329 whales (95% confidence limits, CL: 3345, 5315) and λ = 1.03...

While the breeding grounds of Southern Hemisphere humpback whales are generally well defined, the population structure on Antarctic feeding grounds is largely uncertain. This is of particular interest around the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) where rapidly changing environmental conditions may alter prey distribution or migration pathways. To examine cha...

The taxonomic status of many dolphin populations remains uncertain in poorly studied regions of the world's ocean. Here we attempt to clarify the phylogenetic identity of two distinct forms of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops spp.) described in the Melanesian region of the Pacific Ocean. Mitochondrial DNA control region sequences from samples collecte...

For cetaceans, population structure is traditionally determined by molecular genetics or photographically identified individuals. Acoustic data, however, has provided information on movement and population structure with less effort and cost than traditional methods in an array of taxa. Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) produce a contin...

The taxonomic status of many dolphin populations remains uncertain in poorly studied regions of the world's ocean. Here we attempt to clarify the phylogenetic identity of two distinct forms of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops spp.) described in the Melanesian region of the Pacific Ocean. Mitochondrial DNA control region sequences from samples collecte...

Estimating population trends for long-lived, migratory animals is challenging but essential for managing populations. Here we propose using a simple but potentially robust method, the direct estimation of population growth rate (PGR) from capture-recapture data. We considered an Endangered population of humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae breedi...

Despite its distribution throughout the tropics and subtropics, the pygmy killer whale (Feresa attenu-ata) is one of the most poorly known species of odontocetes (Cetacea: Delphinidae). We used the opportunity of a mass stranding of six animals in New Caledonia (early February 2006) to gather information about their biology. Four animals, including...

Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) produce a continually evolving vocal sexual display, or "song," which is shared by all males within a population. The rapid cultural transmission of this display between distinct but interconnected populations within the western and central South Pacific region presents a unique opportunity to investiga...

Understanding the dynamics of population recovery is particularly complex when an organism has multiple, remote breeding and feeding grounds separated by one of the longest known migration routes. This study reports on the most comprehensive assessment of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) movements between remote Antarctic waters south of New...

The CETA program (Distribution des Cétacés en Terre Adélie) was launched with support of the French Polar Institute (IPEV) in 2009 to carry out a study on cetacean distribution off Adélie Land (IWC Area V). This work is a part of the Southern Ocean Research Partnerships (SORP) on non-lethal whale research and one of the only French research initiat...

In understanding the impact of commercial whaling, it is important to estimate the mixing of low latitude breeding populations on Antarctic feeding grounds, particularly the endangered humpback whale populations of Oceania. This paper estimates the degree of genetic differentiation among the putative populations of Oceania (New Caledonia, Tonga, th...

Recent photo-identification and genetic studies have identified at least five discrete breeding populations in Australia and Oceania: western Australia (D), eastern Australia (E (i)), New Caledonia (E (ii)), Tonga (E (iii)), French Polynesia and the Cook Islands (F). Also evident are low levels of intermingling among breeding populations consistent...

Understanding how whales mix or segregate is important to the protection of both the animals and their habitats. As elsewhere, studies of humpback whales in New Caledonia (South Pacific) have been long focused on coastal areas (1996-present), particularly within the southern lagoon, which is viewed as this population’s primary breeding area. Howeve...

Male humpback whales produce a long, complex, and stereotyped song on low-latitude breeding grounds; they also sing while migrating to and from these locations, and occasionally in high-latitude summer feeding areas. All males in a population sing the current version of the constantly evolving display and, within an ocean basin, populations sing si...

The Coral Sea, located at the southwestern rim of the Pacific Ocean, is the only tropical marginal sea where human impacts remain relatively minor. Patterns and processes identified within the region have global relevance as a baseline for understanding impacts in more disturbed tropical locations. Despite 70 years of documented research, the Coral...

The Chesterfield Archipelago is a large, uninhabited complex located in the central Coral Sea (19°-22°S, 158°-160°E), halfway between Australia and the main island of New Caledonia. It is composed of two main plateaus, the Chesterfield platform and the Bellona platform (Missègue and Collot 1987), covering a total area of about 16,000 km2. These pla...

After decades of whaling, Oceania humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae have such a low rate of recovery that a trend is not currently measurable. They are listed as Endangered by the IUCN, and any possible threat to the whales needs to be carefully monitored and mitigated. Whale-watching activities represent an important economic development thro...

Humpback whales have a continually evolving vocal sexual display, or "song," that appears to undergo both evolutionary and "revolutionary" change. All males within a population adhere to the current content and arrangement of the song. Populations within an ocean basin share similarities in their songs; this sharing is complex as multiple variation...

A phenomenon of transience in the humpback whale population breeding in New Caledonia has been highlighted in recent analyses. We used these data to illustrate the risk of flawed inference when transience is not properly accounted for in abundance estimation of resident populations. Transients are commonly defined as individuals that pass through t...

Estimating the abundance of long-lived, migratory animals is challenging but essential for managing populations. We provide the first abundance estimates of endangered humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae from their breeding grounds in Oceania, South Pacific. Using fluke photo-identification (1999−2004, n = 660 individuals) and microsatellite gen...

Estimating the abundance of long-lived, migratory animals is challenging but essential for managing populations. We provide the first abundance estimates of endangered humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae from their breeding grounds in Oceania, South Pacific. Using fluke photo-identification (1999−2004, n = 660 individuals) and microsatellite gen...

Discovery mark tagging provided the first evidence of linkages between eastern Australian and Oceania Humpback whale breeding grounds and the Antarctic Area V feeding areas. Early investigation of movements of humpback whales in the Western Pacific led to the view that the Balleny Islands and the Ross Sea were the summer destinations for humpback w...

Animals can communicate using visual and acoustic displays to convey information to conspecifics. In some cases, such displays are produced in highly stereotyped and repetitive sequences. Here we use a quantitative analysis technique, the Levenshtein distance, to assess similarity in sequences of displays at both the population and individual level...

We present the first photo-ID catalogue of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Terre Adélie, Antarctica. Pictures were taken over a two-year period (December 2008-January 2011) either opportunistically from land or ship, or systematically from the R/V L’Astrolabe as part of the CETA (CEtacés de Terre Adélie) project. Twenty five encounters with killer...

Humpbacks breeding in east Australia (E1) and Oceania (New Caledonia E2, Tonga E3 and French Polynesia F2) in the South Pacific are thought to be demographically independent, due to significant differentiation of mitochondrial DNA haplotypes between regions, and notable differences in the trend and pattern of recovery across the South Pacific. Matc...

1. Mark–recapture studies are often used to estimate population size based on a single source of individual identification data such as natural markings or artificial tags. However, with the development of molecular ecology, multiple sources of identification can be obtained for some species and combining them to obtain population size estimates wo...

Cultural transmission, the social learning of information or behaviors from conspecifics, is believed to occur in a number of groups of animals, including primates, cetaceans, and birds. Cultural traits can be passed vertically (from parents to offspring), obliquely (from the previous generation via a nonparent model to younger individuals), or hor...