The Nature of Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Song

• Main Authors: E. C. M. Parsons, A. J. Wright, M. A. Gore
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Harper; Humpback Whale; Megaptera novaeangliae
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.499.1168; http://www.oers.ca/journal/Volume1/Issue1_6parsons2008.pdf

The nature of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) song has long interested both scientists and the general public. Research strongly indicates that humpback whale song is an important component in the social behaviour of breeding humpback whales, with proposals that the song has an intra-and/or inter-sexual selection component. Some scientists, how-ever, have alternate hypotheses, such as song being a means of sonar for detecting females. Song is not the only factor in-volved in humpback whale breeding behaviour, as groups of males follow and may physically compete for females. Hence, the exact nature of humpback whale song and its relation to their breeding behaviour is unclear. Why does whale song con-tinuously change throughout the breeding season, and why do new songs spread so quickly throughout a population? In many respects, the nature of humpback whale song may resemble and parallel bird song. For example, many bird species that display innovation in the male’s song also have increased re-productive fitness, and a similar situation may occur in male humpback whales. To explain why such innovation may be selected for in humpback whales, this paper postulates that sexual selection in humpback whales may have both a physical and cognitive fitness component. “No one knew why humpbacks sang. Nate had been listening to them, observing them, photographing them, and poking them with sticks for twenty-five years, and still he had no idea why, exactly, they sang”. From Christopher Moore. Fluke. Or I know why the winged whale sings. Harper Collins. 2004.