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  • Song of The Humpback: Recording Gentle Giants

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    Male humpback whales sing complex songs that can last over 30 minutes, making them the longest songs of any animal. Marine biologist Jim Darling has studied humpback songs for 25 years and recorded them underwater. While the purpose of their songs is unknown, scientists think male humpbacks may use songs to compete for mates or territory. Thanks to whaling bans, the humpback population has increased from around 6,000 to an estimated 30,000 today, though they remain difficult to count as the whales constantly migrate long distances between feeding and breeding areas.

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    Male humpback whales sing complex songs that can last over 30 minutes, making them the longest songs of any animal. Marine biologist Jim Darling has studied humpback songs for 25 years and recorded them underwater. While the purpose of their songs is unknown, scientists think male humpbacks may use songs to compete for mates or territory. Thanks to whaling bans, the humpback population has increased from around 6,000 to an estimated 30,000 today, though they remain difficult to count as the whales constantly migrate long distances between feeding and breeding areas.

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    70 views2 pages

    Song of The Humpback: Recording Gentle Giants

    Uploaded by

    Linh Giang
    Male humpback whales sing complex songs that can last over 30 minutes, making them the longest songs of any animal. Marine biologist Jim Darling has studied humpback songs for 25 years and recorded them underwater. While the purpose of their songs is unknown, scientists think male humpbacks may use songs to compete for mates or territory. Thanks to whaling bans, the humpback population has increased from around 6,000 to an estimated 30,000 today, though they remain difficult to count as the whales constantly migrate long distances between feeding and breeding areas.

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    of 2

    Song of the Humpback

    Jason Sturgis
    1 Herman Melville, the writer of the famous whale story Moby Dick, of Whale Trust,
    wrote that humpback whales were “the most lighthearted1 of all the a Maui-based
    research group,
    whales.” A favorite of whale watchers everywhere, they swim in ocean photographs a
    female humpback
    areas close to land and are active at the surface, often jumping out of swimming with
    her child.
    5 the water and coming down with a great splash. They are intelligent
    animals and can be seen working together as they hunt schools of
    small fish. And, if you listen closely, you might even hear one singing.

    Recording Gentle Giants


    10 Marine biologist2 Jim Darling has studied the songs of humpback
    whales for 25 years. While recording whale songs on a boat near
    Hawaii, he invited author Douglas Chadwick to experience diving with
    a humpback. In the water, the way Chadwick heard the whale’s songs
    changed completely. “Suddenly, I no longer heard the whale’s voice
    15 in my ears. I felt it inside my head and bones.” He clearly sensed the
    whale’s silent awareness of him. The 13-meter-long giant looked him
    over3 curiously, but never harmed him.

    The whale then swam under the boat. It pointed its head down to the
    ocean floor and, with flippers extended out to its sides, began to sing.
    20 Up in the boat, Darling recorded the whale’s song. Such songs may
    be long and complex, lasting for 30 minutes or more; they are perhaps
    the longest songs sung by any animal.

    1
    Someone who is lighthearted is cheerful and happy.
    2
    A marine biologist is a scientist who studies ocean life.
    3
    If you look something over, you examine it for a short period of time.

    2A Ocean Giants
    A humpback’s
    song is recorded 1 Why Do They Sing?
    by an underwater
    microphone.
    Darling says that only male humpbacks sing, but for unknown reasons.
    It was previously thought that they sang to attract females, but scientists
    showed this was incorrect when they played recordings of whale songs
    5 in the ocean and no females came around. Another idea is that male
    humpbacks compete with each other using songs, just as other male
    animals do using antlers, or tusks.4

    In addition to their long and mysterious songs, humpbacks make a


    variety of other sounds as they interact each day. When alarmed by
    10 enemies such as killer whales, or when the feeding is especially good,
    the sounds they produce can be louder than an airplane engine.

    A Brighter Future
    During the days of heavy whale hunting, the world humpback
    population was reduced from an estimated 125,000 to around 6,000
    15 animals. Thanks to laws against hunting, humpbacks now number
    perhaps 30,000 animals, although the constantly moving humpbacks
    are very difficult to count. However, it now
    seems that this mysterious singer will
    continue to sing for years to come.
    4
    Antlers are long, branched horns that grow
    on the heads of some animals, like deer
    or moose.; tusks are the long, pointed
    teeth of some animals, like walruses.

    Long-distance travelers
    In summer months North Pacific humpbacks feed in the
    cold waters of Russia, Alaska, and Canada. In winter three
    groups travel south to Central America, Hawaii, and the
    western Pacific. A single journey may take them more
    than 2,500 miles–the longest migration of any mammal.

       Unit 2 Animal Communications

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