Whale Songs

Humpback whale songs are very complex. They consist of many different sound types which mainly are in a frequency range of 20Hz-4kHz and therefore are audible to humans. Humans are able to hear frequencies of 16Hz up to 16kHz. Humpback whales of one population usually sing the same songs with only little differences but animals of different ocean basins sing different songs. Therefore songs from north Pacific are not the same as those in the north Atlantic or south Pacific. Singing mostly occurs during the winter months when the whales are in tropical and subtropical waters to mate and on the way to and from these reproduction grounds.

During this season the songs slightly change from time to time in a way that sounds get lost and others are added or the order of sounds is changed. These changes are adopted by the wole humpback whale population. How does that work? Obviously humpback whale songs can be heard over long distances. Depending on oceanographic conditions humpback whales can hear each other over several hundred or even thousands of kilometers. In the beginning of the next winter the songs are almost the same as those sung in the end of the last winter. Thus humpback whales do not forget the structure of their songs during the summer months.

The function of these songs is still unclear. Only male humpback whales sing and singing animals seem to avoid each other. The singing whales do either travel or hang in the water motionless with head down and tail up in a depth of 15 to 35m. There are several hypotheses about the function of the songs. Songs are very likely to be a sexual advertisement to females but they could also ensure the maintenance of a certain distance between the males or play a rule in the establishment of dominance among the males. Additionally songs are likely to provide information to females about the location of the male and its reproductive fitness. The head down tail up position could possibly improve the reach of the song.

Every song consists of units, phrases and themes. Units consist of distinct sounds which are only a few seconds long. A phrase consists of repeated units or repeated sequences of units. Phrases are repeated as well. One sequence of phrases consists at least 20-30 phrase replications. Themes are several sequences of phrases. A song finally is made up of 5-7 themes and has a duration of 5-30min. Those songs are often repeated again and again for up to 24 hours, which is called a song session.

Bowhead whales sing only during spring migration. Songs are simpler and shorter than those of humpback whales since they consist of 1-3 themes only with basically two sounds repeated again and again. These sounds cover a broader frequency range than other bowhead whale calls and exhibit more frequency modulation. The duration of a song is about one minute but song sessions can last for several hours. The bowhead whale songs sound similar to elephant trumpeting and are audible to humans. There is no information available about the function of those songs and about the sex of the singer. Songs seem to change from year to year but are similar within one season. Usually only one whale is singing at a time. When this whale stopps another whale starts singing.Little is known about fin whale and blue whale songs. Fin whale songs seem to consist of 20Hz signals which are repeated over and over. Thus frequency range is much smaller than that of humpback whale and bowhead whale songs. Like humpback whales singing animals seem to avoid each other since they keep a distance of at least 5km to one another. Mostly even only one whale is singing at a time. Singing and non-singing fin whales keep a distance of at least 200m to each other. The singing whales usually move little and stay at a depth of about 50m.

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Whale Acoustics