A Call to Mate or a Call to Arms?

HUMPBACK WHALES BREEDING — Songs

Here’s a program from our archives.
ambience: Humpback Whale Songs

Beneath the waves of the warm, clear waters off the coast of Mexico this week, humpback whales glide through their winter breeding grounds. That ethereal cry echoing across the ocean may be their way of saying “What’s a whale like you doing in a place like this?” I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

The humpback whales we’re hearing now were recorded off the coast of Baja. Every year, anywhere from 100 to a few thousand humpbacks from Northern California, Canada and Alaska migrate here to mate.

Mattila: The large whales spend the majority of their time in colder water, at least most of them do, but they migrate from a cold water feeding ground into a warm water breeding ground in the winter.

David Mattila, a Senior Scientist at the Center for Coastal Research, tells us that what we’re hearing is a song, one specific type of call that the male humpbacks make. It has a distinct purpose during breeding, but it’s still under debate as to whether the song is a call to mate, or a call to arms.

Mattila: Dr. Roger Payne is the gentleman who discovered that humpback whales sing. After he discovered that, people began to notice that the singing only occurred in the breeding grounds. They began to notice that the humpback whales that were singing were almost always alone and they were were pretty good size whales, and when another whale joined them, they stopped singing. We began to suspect that the humpback whales that were singing in the breeding grounds were the mature males. Everybody sort of jumped to the conclusion that the song was a mating call, and that they were advertising for a mate. Recent work has shed a little bit of doubt on that because most of the whales that join the males that are singing have turned out to be other males, and they don’t swim off peacefully into the sunset. They get into fights. So some people think the song may be an acoustic display that the males use in order to establish a dominance hierarchy in the breeding grounds.

I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

A Call to Mate or a Call to Arms?

The precise role of the humpback whale's song is unknown.
Air Date:02/02/2022
Scientist:
Transcript:

HUMPBACK WHALES BREEDING -- Songs Here's a program from our archives. ambience: Humpback Whale Songs Beneath the waves of the warm, clear waters off the coast of Mexico this week, humpback whales glide through their winter breeding grounds. That ethereal cry echoing across the ocean may be their way of saying "What's a whale like you doing in a place like this?" I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. The humpback whales we're hearing now were recorded off the coast of Baja. Every year, anywhere from 100 to a few thousand humpbacks from Northern California, Canada and Alaska migrate here to mate. Mattila: The large whales spend the majority of their time in colder water, at least most of them do, but they migrate from a cold water feeding ground into a warm water breeding ground in the winter. David Mattila, a Senior Scientist at the Center for Coastal Research, tells us that what we're hearing is a song, one specific type of call that the male humpbacks make. It has a distinct purpose during breeding, but it's still under debate as to whether the song is a call to mate, or a call to arms. Mattila: Dr. Roger Payne is the gentleman who discovered that humpback whales sing. After he discovered that, people began to notice that the singing only occurred in the breeding grounds. They began to notice that the humpback whales that were singing were almost always alone and they were were pretty good size whales, and when another whale joined them, they stopped singing. We began to suspect that the humpback whales that were singing in the breeding grounds were the mature males. Everybody sort of jumped to the conclusion that the song was a mating call, and that they were advertising for a mate. Recent work has shed a little bit of doubt on that because most of the whales that join the males that are singing have turned out to be other males, and they don't swim off peacefully into the sunset. They get into fights. So some people think the song may be an acoustic display that the males use in order to establish a dominance hierarchy in the breeding grounds. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.