Humpback Whale

Humpback Whale Sounds (Megaptera novaeangliae)

Description

Underwater photograph of humpback whales in Hawaii. ©Tsuneo Nakamura.

Humpback whales are probably the best known of all the baleen whales. Humpback whales are rorquals and are found in all parts of the ocean. They spend spring, summer, and fall in high latitudes feeding on rich patches of prey. During the winter they migrate to more tropical areas for breeding and calving. Humpbacks range from 16-17 m (52-56 ft) in length, and females are typically 1-1.5 m (3-5 ft) longer than males. Humpback whales can be identified by their long pectoral flippers that are approximately 1/3 their body length. The top, or dorsal, part of the body is black, but parts of both sides of the flippers and the undersides of the tail flukes are white. Distinctive markings on the underside of the tail flukes are used to identify individual humpback whales. These traits are easy to see because humpback whales often perform spectacular jumps and leaps at the surface.

Humpbacks are best known for their vocalizations that are arranged in complex, repeating sequences with the characteristics of “song” (See How Marine Mammals Communicate Using Sound). Scientists have discovered that these songs are produced by males on the breeding grounds. They contain both tonal and pulsed sounds and change from year to year.

Humpback whale breaching. ©Inger Marie Laursen.

Recent studies have found that humpbacks continue to sing on their feeding grounds. It is thought that singing may function as male breeding displays, male-male social ordering, or a means for spacing reproductively active males. Humpback whales also produce rhythmic “feeding calls” that are usually about 2.5 seconds long at 500 Hz when on the high latitude feeding grounds.

Recordings

• Humpback whale song, CA.

Humpback whale songs can be typically heard in their winter breeding grounds (e.g., Hawaii), but this recording of a humpback whale singing was actually taken in one of their feeding grounds on Cordell Bank Canyon, off the coast of San Francisco, CA. The echoes you hear are from their sounds bouncing off the canyon walls. Sound ©Thomas R. Kieckhefer. Released under Creative Commons License, Non-commercial attribution, International 3.0.

Additional Resources

• American Cetacean Society Fact Sheet: Humpback Whales.
• Richardson, W. J., Green, C. R., Malme, C. I. J., & Thomson, D. H. (1995). Marine Mammals and Noise. San Diego: Academic Press.
• National Marine Mammal Laboratory: Humpback Whales.
• PBS Nature: Humpback Whales.
• Cerchio, S., Jacobsen, J. K., & Norris, T. F. (2001). Temporal and geographical variation in songs of humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae: synchronous change in Hawaiian and Mexican breeding assemblages. Animal Behaviour, 62(2), 313–329. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2001.1747
• National Geographic Crittercam. 2013, Video Reveals Surprising Humpback Feeding Behavior. (video shows bottom-feeding by humpback whales)

References

• Cerchio, S., & Dahlheim, M. (2001). Variation in feeding vocalizations of humpback whales megaptera novaeangliae from southeast Alaska. Bioacoustics, 11(4), 277–295. https://doi.org/10.1080/09524622.2001.9753468
• Charif, R. A., Clapham, P. J., & Clark, C. W. (2001). Acoustic detections of singing humpback whales in deep waters off the British Isles. Marine Mammal Science, 17(4), 751–768. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-7692.2001.tb01297.x
• Clark, C. W., & Clapham, P. J. (2004). Acoustic monitoring on a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) feeding ground shows continual singing into late spring. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 271(1543), 1051–1057. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2004.2699
• Darling, J. D., & Berube, M. (2001). Interactions of singing humpback whales with other males. Marine Mammal Science, 17(3), 570–584. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-7692.2001.tb01005.x