Scholars@Duke
Nicola Quick

Nicola Quick

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Marine Science and Conservation
Marine Science and Conservation

Selected Publications

Trade-offs in telemetry tag programming for deep-diving cetaceans: data longevity, resolution, and continuity

Journal Article Animal Biotelemetry · December 1, 2023 Background: Animal-borne telemetry instruments (tags) have greatly advanced our understanding of species that are challenging to observe. Recently, non-recoverable instruments attached to cetaceans have increased in use, but these devices have limitations ... Full text Cite

A sampling, exposure and receptor framework for identifying factors that modulate behavioural responses to disturbance in cetaceans.

Journal Article The Journal of animal ecology · October 2022 The assessment of behavioural disturbance in cetacean species (e.g. resulting from exposure to anthropogenic sources such as military sonar, seismic surveys, or pile driving) is important for effective conservation and management. Disturbance effects can b ... Full text Cite

Spy in the sky: a method to identify pregnant small cetaceans

Journal Article Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation · August 1, 2022 Data on sex ratios, age classes, reproductive success and health status are key metrics to manage populations, yet can be difficult to collect in wild cetacean populations. Long-term individual-based studies provide a unique opportunity to apply unoccupied ... Full text Cite

MULTISTATE CAPTURE–RECAPTURE MODELS FOR IRREGULARLY SAMPLED DATA

Journal Article Annals of Applied Statistics · June 1, 2022 Multistate capture-recapture data comprise individual-specific sighting histories, together with information on individuals’ states related, for example, to breeding status, infection level, or geographical location. Such data are often analysed using the ... Full text Cite

Adult male Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris) engage in prolonged bouts of synchronous diving

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · July 1, 2021 Studies of the social behavior of Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris) are challenging because of their deep-water habitat usually far from shore and the limited time they spend at the surface. The sociality of these deepest diving mammals is of in ... Full text Cite

Extreme diving in mammals: first estimates of behavioural aerobic dive limits in Cuvier's beaked whales.

Journal Article The Journal of experimental biology · September 2020 We analysed 3680 dives from 23 satellite-linked tags deployed on Cuvier's beaked whales to assess the relationship between long duration dives and inter-deep dive intervals and to estimate aerobic dive limit (ADL). The median duration of presumed foraging ... Full text Open Access Cite

Changing distribution of the east coast of Scotland bottlenose dolphin population and the challenges of area-based management

Journal Article Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems · September 1, 2019 The efficacy of marine protected areas (MPAs) depends on clear conservation objectives and ecologically meaningful boundaries. The east coast of Scotland bottlenose dolphin population expanded its distributional range during the 1990s beyond the boundaries ... Full text Cite

Mind the gap - Optimizing satellite tag settings for time series analysis of foraging dives in Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris)

Journal Article Animal Biotelemetry · March 15, 2019 Background: Studies of deep-diving beaked whales using Argos satellite-linked location-depth tags frequently return data with large gaps in the diving record. We document the steps taken to eliminate these data gaps and collect weeks of continuous time ser ... Full text Cite

Diving behaviour of Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris) off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Journal Article Royal Society open science · February 2019 Cuvier's beaked whales exhibit exceptionally long and deep foraging dives. The species is little studied due to their deep-water, offshore distribution and limited time spent at the surface. We used LIMPET satellite tags to study the diving behaviour of Cu ... Full text Cite

Variations in age- and sex-specific survival rates help explain population trend in a discrete marine mammal population.

Journal Article Ecology and evolution · January 2019 Understanding the drivers underlying fluctuations in the size of animal populations is central to ecology, conservation biology, and wildlife management. Reliable estimates of survival probabilities are key to population viability assessments, and patterns ... Full text Open Access Cite

Selective reactions to different killer whale call categories in two delphinid species.

Journal Article The Journal of experimental biology · June 2018 The risk of predation is often invoked as an important factor influencing the evolution of social organization in cetaceans, but little direct information is available about how these aquatic mammals respond to predators or other perceived threats. We used ... Full text Cite

Two-component calls in short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus)

Journal Article Marine Mammal Science · January 1, 2018 Short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) have complex vocal repertoires that include calls with two time-frequency contours known as two-component calls. We attached digital acoustic recording tags (DTAGs) to 23 short-finned pilot whales off ... Full text Link to item Cite

A new approach to estimate fecundity rate from inter-birth intervals

Journal Article Ecosphere · April 1, 2017 Accurate estimates of fecundity rate are key to population assessments and effectively direct conservation efforts. We present a new approach to estimate fecundity rate based on the probability of a female giving birth, conditional on a previous birth t ye ... Full text Cite

Effects of a scientific echo sounder on the behavior of short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus)

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences · January 1, 2017 Active echo sounding devices are often employed for commercial or scientific purposes in the foraging habitats of marine mammals. We conducted an experiment off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, USA, to assess whether the behavior of short-finned pilot whales ... Full text Cite

Long-term trends in the use of a protected area by small cetaceans in relation to changes in population status

Journal Article Global Ecology and Conservation · December 1, 2014 The requirement to monitor listed species in European designated sites is challenging for long-lived mobile species that only temporarily occupy protected areas. We use a 21 year time series of bottlenose dolphin photo-identification data to assess trends ... Full text Cite

Measuring whale and dolphin call rates as a function of behavioral, social, and environmental context

Journal Article The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · October 1, 2014 Cetacean sound-production rates are highly variable and patchy in time, depending upon individual behavior, social context, and environmental context. Better quantification of the drivers of this variability should allow more realistic estimates of ... Full text Cite

Bottlenose dolphins exchange signature whistles when meeting at sea.

Journal Article Proceedings. Biological sciences · July 2012 The bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, is one of very few animals that, through vocal learning, can invent novel acoustic signals and copy whistles of conspecifics. Furthermore, receivers can extract identity information from the invented part of whis ... Full text Open Access Cite

Global analysis of cetacean line-transect surveys: Detecting trends in cetacean density

Journal Article Marine Ecology Progress Series · May 7, 2012 Measuring the effect of anthropogenic change on cetacean populations is hampered by our lack of understanding about population status and a lack of power in the available data to detect trends in abundance. Often long-term data from repeated surveys are la ... Full text Cite

Global coverage of cetacean line-transect surveys: status quo, data gaps and future challenges.

Journal Article PloS one · January 2012 Knowledge of abundance, trends and distribution of cetacean populations is needed to inform marine conservation efforts, ecosystem models and spatial planning. We compiled a geo-spatial database of published data on cetacean abundance from dedicated visual ... Full text Cite

Vessel noise affects beaked whale behavior: results of a dedicated acoustic response study.

Journal Article PloS one · January 2012 Some beaked whale species are susceptible to the detrimental effects of anthropogenic noise. Most studies have concentrated on the effects of military sonar, but other forms of acoustic disturbance (e.g. shipping noise) may disrupt behavior. An experiment ... Full text Cite

Whistle rates of wild bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus): influences of group size and behavior.

Journal Article Journal of comparative psychology (Washington, D.C. : 1983) · August 2008 In large social groups acoustic communication signals are prone to signal masking by conspecific sounds. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) use highly distinctive signature whistles that counter masking effects. However, they can be found in very lar ... Full text Cite

Vocal exchanges in wild bottlenose dolphins

Journal Article The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · May 1, 2006 This study investigated the behavioral context of stereotypic whistle exchanges in wild bottlenose dolphins off north-east Scotland to infer function from whistle usage. Concurrent acoustic and nonacoustic behavioral data sampling was conducted dur ... Full text Cite