Whales are known for belting out sounds in the deep. But they may also whisper.
Southern right whale moms steer their calves to shallow waters, where newborns are less likely to be picked off by an orca. There, crashing waves mask the occasional quiet calls that the pairs make. That may help the whales stick together without broadcasting their location to predators, researchers report July 11 in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
While most whale calls are meant to be long-range, “this shows us that whales have a sort of intimate communication as well,” says Mia Nielsen, a behavioral biologist at Aarhus University in Denmark. “Its only meant for the whale right next to you.”
Nielsen and colleagues tagged nine momma whales with audio recorders and sensors to measure motion and water pressure, and also recorded ambient noise in the nearshore environment. When the whales were submerged, below the noisy waves, the scientists could pick up the hushed calls, soft enough to fade into the background noise roughly 200 meters away.
Hush sound[hhmc]
Southern right whales can make a racket with loud grunts or gunshot-like sounds. But sometimes they communicate quietly with whispers that sound like a mooing cow, as in this audio clip.
Audio: M.L.K. Nielsen et al/Journal of Experimental Biology; Image: Michaël CATANZARITI/Wikimedia Commons 2019
An orca, or killer whale, “would have to get quite close in the big ocean to be able to detect them,” says biologist Peter Tyack at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Tyack was not involved with the study, but collaborates with one of the coauthors on other projects.
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