Cap'n, there be whales here!

Science reported and discussed with a sense of humor:

The humpback whale is believed to sing its mysterious songs for the same reason generations of teens have started bad garage bands: to get girls.

The findings undermine long-held assumptions about humpback behavior, said whale biologist Phillip Clapham of the Northeast Fishery Sciences Center, co-author of a paper on the singing in the current issue of Proceedings Royal Society, Biology.

"It tells us whales don't read the text books, which is really annoying," he said.

Humpbacks have a range that covers eight octaves, from a bass so low that humans can't hear it to a magnificent soprano, Clark said. Their highly structured songs include multiple themes that are constantly repeated and even rhyme.

The songs last up to 30 minutes, and the whales embellish like jazz musicians, seeing "who can improvise in some attractive way better than the other (whale)," Clark said.

Everything I knew about humpback whales I learned from Star Trek.

Posted by Ted at May 6, 2004 07:19 AM | TrackBack