Whale Song

Humpback Whale Song

Well we're nearing the end of whale watching season and we have seen some fascinating and awe-inspiring displays from the whales! But sometimes we wish we could see and hear more of what's happening below the surface! For example we've seen a lot of courtship displays, males showing off breaches and head lunges to impress females... but another form of courtship for the humpbacks happens underwater - that's the intriguing love songs they sing! Male humpback whales produce the most complex sounds of any marine animal, they sing songs that may be around 20 minutes long and consist of a number of themes and phrases repeated in a stereotypical order, much like the choruses and verses of our songs. When they sing they tend to hang motionless in the water at a 45 degree angle with the head pointing downwards and the tail up towards the surface. Sometimes a lone male will sing his song over and over for hours at a time, in the hope of attracting a female.

all the males within one population sing exactly the same song at any given time, but they are slowly changing the song...

This singing behaviour has intrigued scientists for years as it is considered a case of "culture" in an animal. Culture is defined as a behaviour that's modified over time and learned from other individuals in the population (excluding a parent). In the case of the humpback whale song, all the males within one population sing exactly the same song at any given time, but they are slowly changing the song over time. Next year they'll be singing a slightly different song, in a few years it will have changed completely. But as they're all singing the same song at any one time, they must be learning from each other as changes are made.

They are obviously learning from each other and they also seem to be interested in novelty

Occasionally the song can also undergo quite dramatic change as was reported a few years ago for our population of humpback whales here on the east coast of Australia. A few individual immigrants from the West Australian population introduced their (completely different) song here on the East Coast, and after only a few weeks, all the East Coast males had learned and adopted that new song! They are obviously learning from each other and they also seem to be interested in novelty! Maybe the new song was more popular with the female humpbacks or maybe it was just a better tune - who knows! But it certainly shows how intelligent these animals are and how much we still have to learn about them!

You can listen to a Humpback Whale Song here: