We’re listening to the sounds of the largest member of the dolphin family: the so-called Killer whale. This time of year, groups of Killer whales come together to socialize and to breed. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History.
Craig Matkin is Director of the North Gulf Oceanic Society. He tells us that Killer whales use these sounds to communicate with each other.
“But these animals are socializing. There’s some whistles and other calls being made that indicate they’re socializing. Wonderful calls. These calls are used to keep track of each other. Vision doesn’t work that well underwater. But these calls travel for miles and pinpoint the locations of the different individuals. I’m sure there’s also information in these calls that we can’t understand, that carries information about exactly who it is making the call, or maybe whether there’s fish around, or what the conditions are, where a particular animal is swimming.”
Most Killer whales spend their entire lives following their mother– leaving her side only to mate. Growing up in these close family groups, called pods, the whales develop a shared vocabulary of calls.
“Particular calls identify particular pods. The calls are learned by the young as they grow up, so that they essentially all make the same calls as their mother. The vocalizations are handed down from generation to generation by learning from mothers in the pod.”
Pulse of the Planet is presented by the American Museum of Natural History. Additional funding for this series has been provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.