Humpback Whale Song Research Articles

Rhyme‐like Repetitions in Songs of Humpback Whales

AbstractHumpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) sing long, complex songs which continually change over time. In certain time periods the songs contain repeating patterns which structurally resemble human rhyming, and which, like human rhyming, tend to occur in highly rhythmical contexts. We speculate that humpback whales may use these repetitions as mnemonic devices, much as humans are thought to use rhymes. With this speculation in mind we examine 548 humpback whale songs from 7 years in the eastern North Pacific and 12 years in the western North Atlantic oceans. We find that rhyme‐like structures are most likely to occur in songs containing the most material to be remembered.

Humpback Whale Songs on a North Atlantic Feeding Ground

Payne and McVay (1971) described the continuous stereotyped vocalizations produced by humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) as songs. Detailed analyses of humpback whale songs from the lowto mid-latitude waters of the eastern North Pacific (Payne et al., 1983) and the western North Atlantic (Payne and Payne, 1985; Winn and Winn, 1978) have shown that the songs change rapidly and progressively over time.

Behavioral correlations with aberrant patterns in humpback whale songs

Humpback whales emit long, patterned vocalizations referred to as ‘songs”. We analyzed songs from 22 recording sessions whick took place from January to April, 1980 on Silver Bank, Dominican Republic. The sequence of patterns (which we call “themes”) in these songs is remarkably regular. In this sample, there were 427 transitions from one theme to another. Only 20 of these did not follow the expected sequence. We present evidence that some themes are sung out of their usual order far more often than others. We also show that when themes are sung out of sequence, the whale is at the surface, blowing. This finding provides a link between the song structure and humpback behavior. Because aspects of the song structure can be linked to breathing, we hypothesize that a function of the songs is to show how long a whale can hold its breath, and that the duration of a song may be an indication of stamina and physical condition.

Song of the humpback whale ? Population comparisons

Humpback whale songs recorded on tropical calving grounds exhibit different dialects depending on the oceanic basin. Songs sampled simultaneously from two populations in the North Pacific (Hawaii and Mexico) were essentially identical. These North Pacific songs were clearly different from the song type shared by two populations in the North Atlantic (Cape Verde Islands and West Indies). Songs from the Southern Hemisphere (Tonga) represent a third distinct dialect. Our evidence shows that, despite annual change in song organization, significant differences in humpback song occur between isolated ocean basins, while only subtle differences exist within an oceanic population (Hawaii and Pacific Mexico).