Humpback whales are known for their beautiful song,but they are capable of more forms of vocalization, some of which might even be used in communication like we use words. A 2012 study has found that these calls remain the same over decades, and generations. Consistent vocalizations like these are often found in social species and are considered indicative of some sort of communication of message. After all, if these calls are staying the same over time here has to be some reason.
A team of researchers lead by Michelle Fournet took recorded calls from a whale population in Southeastern Alaska, taken in the 1970’s, the 1990’s, the 2000’s and the 2010’s, and classified sixteen distinct calls by aural-visual analysis of characteristics like frequency and duration. Twelve of the observed calls were found in the initial and final recordings, and each call was found in at least three of the four decades. Meaning that these calls have remained in the repertoires of the whales over time.
While these calls have been identified and shown to be consistent over the long term, its still not clear exactly what they mean. Any hope of “speaking” with the whales is still far off. The presence of these distinct and identifiable calls suggests that they have a role in communication. The recording was performed in foraging grounds, so these calls likely have a role in communication about foraging. The first step to being able to identify the role of a particular vocal call in animals is to identify the call itself. By identifying these calls, Fournet and team have opened the door for research that might be able to decode the “language” of humpback whales.
Michelle E. H. Fournet, Christine M. Gabriele, David C. Culp, Fred Sharpe, David K. Mellinger, & Holger Klinck. (2018). Some things never change: multi-decadal stability in humpback whale calling repertoire on Southeast Alaskan foraging grounds. Scientific Reports, Vol 8, Iss 1, Pp 1-13 (2018), (1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-31527-x
Lisette Soto
November 13, 2018 — 4:20 pm
I think this is super interesting! I wonder how long it took to listen to these recordings over to figure out that some of the calls were similar and still used years and years after! When I have time, I’m going to read more into the article, this is really fascinating.
Alina Vadsaria
November 14, 2018 — 2:10 am
Honestly the first thing that came to my mind was Destiny from Finding Dory! But this is very interesting, and the fact that these vocal sounds continue through decades is fascinating. No matter what animal they always have their own unique way of communicating. Sure animals’ communication is easier to study on land, it is amazing scientists are going out to figure out the story of animals under water too.
Jai Lockett
November 14, 2018 — 3:48 pm
This is one of the coolest articles I have come across thus far! It really blows my mind how capable these animals are of maintaining such an ongoing communication system that has been down between generations! Incredible!!
Lizzy Engsberg
November 14, 2018 — 4:07 pm
I really liked this article! I remember spending probably too much time in my childhood trying to imitate the whale calls Dori does in the movie, so learning that whales do have at these sophisticated communication signals is interesting and exciting.