Sound production by singing humpback whales

Sounds from humpback whale songs were analyzed to evaluate possible mechanisms of sound production. Song sounds fell along a continuum with trains of discrete pulses at one end and continuous tonal signals at the other. This graded vocal repertoire is comparable to that seen in false killer whales [...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Vol. 127; no. 4; p. 2678
Main Authors Mercado, 3rd, Eduardo, Schneider, Jennifer N, Pack, Adam A, Herman, Louis M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.04.2010
Subjects
Animals
Hawaii
Humpback Whale - anatomy & histology
Humpback Whale - physiology
Models, Biological
Nonlinear Dynamics
Phonation
Puerto Rico
Respiratory System - anatomy & histology
Seasons
Sound Spectrography
Time Factors
Vibration
Vocalization, Animal
Hawaii
Puerto Rico
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Summary:Sounds from humpback whale songs were analyzed to evaluate possible mechanisms of sound production. Song sounds fell along a continuum with trains of discrete pulses at one end and continuous tonal signals at the other. This graded vocal repertoire is comparable to that seen in false killer whales [Murray et al. (1998). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 104, 1679-1688] and human singers, indicating that all three species generate sounds by varying the tension of pneumatically driven, vibrating membranes. Patterns in the spectral content of sounds and in nonlinear sound features show that resonating air chambers may also contribute to humpback whale sound production. Collectively, these findings suggest that categorizing individual units within songs into discrete types may obscure how singers modulate song features and illustrate how production-based characterizations of vocalizations can provide new insights into how humpback whales sing.
ISSN:1520-8524
DOI:10.1121/1.3309453