Whale Song
The function of song.
Recordings of humpback whale song from Hawaii,
a “feeding sound” used by humpbacks in Alaska,
and a synthesized artificial sound were played back to humpback
whales in Hawaii from
an underwater speaker deployed from a 5-m-long outboard boat (Mobley,
Herman & Frankel, 1988). Whales entering an area of approximately
6 km extent were targeted with one of these sounds and their responses
observed from an elevated shore station employing a high precision
theodolite. Observers on shore had no knowledge of which sound was
being played. Over two-winter seasons, only two whales approached
the boat in response to song. In contrast, about 20% of the whales
exposed to the feeding sound charged toward the boat at high speed
and then swam away after inspecting the speaker. Those whose genders
were identified were males. Hence, the results of this study do
not support the contention that song serves to attract females to
the male singer.
Songs in different North Pacific wintering grounds.
The structure of humpback song was compared from three different
North Pacific wintering grounds: Mexico,
Hawaii, and Japan. Three
themes were common to all three areas. There was additional overlap
of themes between Hawaii
and Mexico
and, independently, between Hawaii
and Japan. The
findings suggest some acoustic contact between whales in these three
areas, but some independence as well (Helweg, Herman, Yamamoto &
Forestell, 1990).
Spacing of singers in the winter grounds.
Using a three-hydrophone array to localize the source of underwater
sounds, we studied the movements and spacing of singing humpback
whales off the Big Island of Hawaii (Frankel, Clark, Herman &
Gabriele, 1995). Singers were separated from one another by an average
distance of 5.1 km. This was a significantly greater distance than
that between nonsinging single animals, supporting the hypothesis
that singing serves in part to maintain distance between singers. Some
singers actively swam while singing and some continued singing after
affiliating with or being joined by other whales.
Click here to hear a
humpback whale sing.
Frankel,
A. S., Clark, C. W., Herman, L. M. & Gabriele, C. M. (1995).
Spatial distribution, habitat utilization, and social interactions
of humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, off Hawaii, determined
using acoustic and visual techniques. Canadian Journal of Zoology
73, 1134-1146.
Helweg,
D. A., Herman, L. M., Yamamoto, S., and Forestell, P. H. (1990).Comparison
of songs of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) recorded
in Japan, Hawaii, and Mexicoduring the winter of 1989. Scientific
Reports of Cetacean Research 1, 1-20.
Mobley,
J. R., Jr., Herman, L. M., and Frankel, A. S. (1988). Responses
of wintering humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) to
playback of recordings of winter and summer vocalizations and synthetic
sound. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 23, 211-223.
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