4. Acoustic Communication in Whales and Dolphins
193
frequency impulse sounds during agonistic situations with both conspecifics
and other marine mammals (dolphins and sea lions), and harsh, broadband
vocalizations during aggressive encounters with conspecifics (Clark 1983).
Female right whales produce sequences of screams when engaged in sexually active groups (Kraus 1991), and playback of right whale sounds is
known to attract males from distances of several miles (Clark and Clark
1980). Several species of baleen whale are known to produce reproductive
advertisement displays, called songs.
3.2.1 Humpback Whale
The most complex vocal displays known from cetaceans are the songs of
humpback whales, M. novaeangliae (Payne and McVay 1971). One whale
may sing continually for hours without stopping. Each song is made up of
three to nine themes that tend to be sung in a particular order, and it often
takes about 10 to 15 minutes before a singer returns to the initial theme.
Each theme is made up of phrases that repeat a variable number of times
before a new theme is heard. Each phrase contains a series of different
sounds and lasts about 15 seconds. The individual sounds that make up the
song range in frequency from about 100Hz to 4kHz. Figure 4.9 shows a
spectrogram of a humpback song recorded in waters near the Hawaiian
Islands and made during a period when themes were numbered one to nine.
The phrase boundaries are marked by vertical lines in Figure 4.9.
Songs recorded from different humpback whales within about a week in
the same breeding area are quite similar. At anyone time, all of the singers
within a breeding area sing the same themes in the same order, and the
individual sounds that make up the song are quite similar but not identical.
However, the song changes dramatically from month to month and from
year to year at all levels of song structure. For example, there was a theme
3 that was common during early 1977, but in hundreds of recordings made
later in 1977 and for years afterwards in the Hawaiian breeding area, it was
never heard after the end of March 1977. In the 1978 song shown in Figure
4.9, this theme was replaced by a transitional phrase between themes 2 and
4. Theme 7 had been common in songs from 1977 and the early part of 1978,
but by the time of the recording shown in Figure 4.9, theme 7 had disappeared from the song. There is no indication that these changes in the song
reflect changes in the message; for the whales appear to be engaged in
similar interactions even as the song changes. There appears to be a strong
force for vocal convergence in the songs of humpback whales on a breeding area at anyone time, coupled with progressive change in all aspects of
the song over time (Payne et al. 1983; Payne and Payne 1985).
Humpback song is usually recorded during the winter in the tropical
breeding grounds of these whales, although it has been reported on rare
occasions in the feeding areas as well. Tyack (1981) demonstrated that it
was possible to identify and follow singing whales at sea, and to track their
193
frequency impulse sounds during agonistic situations with both conspecifics
and other marine mammals (dolphins and sea lions), and harsh, broadband
vocalizations during aggressive encounters with conspecifics (Clark 1983).
Female right whales produce sequences of screams when engaged in sexually active groups (Kraus 1991), and playback of right whale sounds is
known to attract males from distances of several miles (Clark and Clark
1980). Several species of baleen whale are known to produce reproductive
advertisement displays, called songs.
3.2.1 Humpback Whale
The most complex vocal displays known from cetaceans are the songs of
humpback whales, M. novaeangliae (Payne and McVay 1971). One whale
may sing continually for hours without stopping. Each song is made up of
three to nine themes that tend to be sung in a particular order, and it often
takes about 10 to 15 minutes before a singer returns to the initial theme.
Each theme is made up of phrases that repeat a variable number of times
before a new theme is heard. Each phrase contains a series of different
sounds and lasts about 15 seconds. The individual sounds that make up the
song range in frequency from about 100Hz to 4kHz. Figure 4.9 shows a
spectrogram of a humpback song recorded in waters near the Hawaiian
Islands and made during a period when themes were numbered one to nine.
The phrase boundaries are marked by vertical lines in Figure 4.9.
Songs recorded from different humpback whales within about a week in
the same breeding area are quite similar. At anyone time, all of the singers
within a breeding area sing the same themes in the same order, and the
individual sounds that make up the song are quite similar but not identical.
However, the song changes dramatically from month to month and from
year to year at all levels of song structure. For example, there was a theme
3 that was common during early 1977, but in hundreds of recordings made
later in 1977 and for years afterwards in the Hawaiian breeding area, it was
never heard after the end of March 1977. In the 1978 song shown in Figure
4.9, this theme was replaced by a transitional phrase between themes 2 and
4. Theme 7 had been common in songs from 1977 and the early part of 1978,
but by the time of the recording shown in Figure 4.9, theme 7 had disappeared from the song. There is no indication that these changes in the song
reflect changes in the message; for the whales appear to be engaged in
similar interactions even as the song changes. There appears to be a strong
force for vocal convergence in the songs of humpback whales on a breeding area at anyone time, coupled with progressive change in all aspects of
the song over time (Payne et al. 1983; Payne and Payne 1985).
Humpback song is usually recorded during the winter in the tropical
breeding grounds of these whales, although it has been reported on rare
occasions in the feeding areas as well. Tyack (1981) demonstrated that it
was possible to identify and follow singing whales at sea, and to track their