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Humpback whales sing. They mostly sing when it is the breeding seasons and males are competing for females, but recently, people have reported hearing the songs outside of breeding season have become more common. Ari S. Friedlaender uncovered the mystery that endangered marine animals share their hunting behaviors with their mating behaviors. Essentially they are multitasking. Scientist from U.S. Naval Academy, University of California-Santa Barbra, and Duke University tracked humpback whale in the Artic Peninsula from May to June. This time of year and destination is a major feeding time. They hunt on krill before migrating thousands of miles away for a warmer climate. The scientist used non-harming sensor tags to record the whales' underwater movements and vocalizations. All the whales were recorded singing with the same kind of approach as in breeding season. The songs indicate when a whale is lunging to catch the krill. The reasons they sing are still not fully understood, but scientist know that they don't just sing while mating. The fact that people heard mating displays being sung off the coast of Antarctica during the main feeding season shows humpback whale songs may be more closely tied to the time of year than to action.
NOS:
- Science is collaborative
- Science is based on evidence
- Role of credibility
- Importance of repeatability
- Role of motivation and curiosity
I think that it is interesting that Whales sing for breeding or mating. I didn't really know that whales used the noises that they make for anything other than echolocation to sometimes find food. I learned that different species of whales will have very different songs but the songs within a species are actually quite similar. I think that it is cool that whales make noise that resembles music (That makes a segment in the movie "Fantasia 2000" make a lot more sense.) I would love to hear the song of a whale in person. I think that would be great.
ReplyDeletelink: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_vocalization
Wow that is interesting that the singing may be tied more closely to the time of year than the action that they are performing.A couple more nature of science themes I found was the role of chance because it was chance that they heard some of the things the whales did. also the role of skepticism because people could argue different reasons why they sing. I think that the whales are multitasking because they need to do both mate and hunt they can search for a mate while they are hunting.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nicholas.duke.edu/news/multi-tasking-whales-sing-while-feeding-not-just-breeding
Interesting article Marla! It's amazing to see how complex and smart other animals are. As we start to learn more and more about the animals around us, we are able to understand them and their behaviors much more in depth. I wonder why all of the whales were recording singing things similar in the breeding season when it wasn't that time of season.
ReplyDeleteOne question I have is:
Why do the whales sing and do they have a connection to each other and all sing at the same time?
Here is an article for further research:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21592348