Dive times and ventilation patterns of singing humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae )

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Zoology
• Main Author: Chu, Kevin C.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1988
• Subjects: Animal Science and Zoology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Megaptera novaeangliae
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z88-194; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z88-194

The dive times and ventilation rates of individual singing humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) on Silver Bank, Dominican Republic, are compared. All singers in this study were alone and moving slowly, so the behavioral states of the whales were imilar. For individual whales, longer dives are clearly followed by more exahalations. Therefore, the longer a singer holds his breath, the greater the need to breathe must be. However, some singers dived for longer periods than did others, and singers with longer mean dive times did not necessarily breathe more often upon surfacing than did singers with short dives. Long dives, then, appear to be less stressful for some whales than for others. The data suggest that some singers are in better physical condition than others. I speculate that by singing, a male humpback may be conveying information about his diving ability and general physical condition.