Experts study dialects in blue whale songs
Photo: John Calambokidis, Cascadia Research.
Scientists who study whale songs say the sound can be very different from one whale to the next.
Whale songs can sound so different, in fact, that experts are calling their regional voices “dialects.” They’ve identified nine blue whale dialects so far.
Erin Oleson: The blue whale calls that we hear here off of southern California are distinct to the male blue whales that occur along the west coast of the United States. But they’re not the same sounds that you would hear say if you went to Sri Lanka, or Australia or even anywhere in the Atlantic ocean.
That’s Erin Oleson at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She recently completed a five–year study of blue whales in the northern Pacific. In that study, she found that – in at least one population of blue whales – it’s strictly the males who sing.
Oleson said she believes the various songs of blue whales might be indicators of distinct populations. In other words, when a California blue whale encounters a blue whale from across the Pacific, it’s possible they know each other to be geographically and genetically distinct by their songs. Scientists are now studying different populations of blue whales by carefully listening to the subtle variations in their songs.
Our thanks today to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Life size blue whale on your web browser, from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.
According to Erin Oleson, upcoming research will use the behavioral context of the different whale sounds to look at habitat and breeding grounds and to compare the genetics of the different populations relative to the song types.
Thanks to:
Erin Oleson
Postdoctoral researcher
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
It’s interesting that male whales sing like male birds. I wonder if there is any connection from eons ago? Swimming with a whale is still on my wish list.