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Communication of Whales
Whales depend on sound for orientation. This ability is important for predators of the deep sea where light is greatly reduced. Only one percent of surface light travels to a depth of 100 meters and at 600 meters, the sun's illumination equates to that of starlight. They detect sound waves via a fat pad between the mandible and middle ear, as they lack an external ear. The short clicking noises whales produce is a form of echolocation, and the sound that bounces off Humpback whales, as well as many other marine animals, use a form of song to communicate through the water. Sound travels over four times as fast in water than it does on land, making whale communication far quicker than human communication. A whale will use their songs most often as mating calls for the opposite sex. Whether alone with a female whale or competing with other whales to get the female whale's attention, the male whales sing beautiful songs as a type of "flirting". These songs can last as long as thirty minutes and are usually split up into small parts of about two to four minutes called themes. Whales often repeat these half-hour songs over and over for many hours and sometimes even days. Scientists have discovered that these songs are geographically specific because whales of the same area will often sing variations of the same songs, whereas whales from distant regions sing entirely different songs. Whale songs can also be used as feeding calls, to attract other whales to get ready for a hunt. They then form a group, lunging together to catch and eat schools of fish at a time. Their hunting call is about five to ten seconds long. The sound of baleen whales is the loudest produced by any animal on earth and travels for many kilometres underwater. It may be used for long-range contract, calls for assembly, in their search of mates, as a greeting, threat or individual identification. They produce mostly low frequency sounds, which are for long distance communication, orientation and navigation. Whale communication occurs through low frequency moans, grunts and thumps, as well as high frequency chirps and whistles that are emitted by the whales. Whales also communicate by means of gestures and body language such as breaching and slapping their tails. Whale noises such as forceful spouts may signal aggravation, and the slapping of pectoral flippers indicates arousal, excitement or aggression. Discover more facts about whales on the following pages of our website.
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external sources forms a mostly clear picture of the obstacles which lay in their tremendous path. These short noises of one to five seconds long are a highly effective sonar system for the whales. One of the facts about whales that you should know is that every species of this majestic mammal employs echolocation.