Honolulu Star-Advertiser © Susan Scott
February 14, 2003
Not long ago on public radio, I listened to the lead singer of a famous band boast that he’d bedded more than a thousand women during his long, successful career. The interviewer, a woman, found this number hard to believe, but the man had proof. He’d snapped a Polaroid of each woman he had sex with and simply counted the pictures.
A long silence followed this statement, and the guy finally said (I’m paraphrasing): “Listen, I didn’t go looking for all those girls. I’m a rock star. They come to me.”
This remark struck the biologist in me because the man had a point, and it extended beyond rock stars and groupies. Throughout the animal world, when males sing, females follow.
Male birds, of course, are the kings of this mating strategy, but whales, especially humpbacks, are also famous for their first-rate vocals.
Only male humpbacks sing. This blows the theory of a former Hawaii harbor master who, years ago, told me she listened at night to female whales moan as they labored and gave birth.
I can understand why she thought this, though. Whale songs have a haunting quality about them that for some people touches on the mystical.
In ideal conditions, humpback songs travel underwater for about 18 miles, and on still nights they’re audible above the surface. One researcher wrote that his happiest hours were spent at night “lying back in the cockpit of a sailboat, alone on watch … while the songs of the humpback whales poured up and out of the sea, to fill my head, my heart and finally my soul.”
Like humans, humpbacks produce songs in the larynx. Each tune consists of three frequencies and seven sounds, all of which the whale varies into specific patterns. Those who study humpback whale sounds often give them names such as moans, cries, whistles, chirps, yups, snores and growls. Although subjective, these names sometimes help researchers communicate their findings.
Most researchers agree that whale songs are concerts put on to attract females.
Humpback whales begin singing in the fall, keep it up during their journey to the tropics, continue through most of the winter and persevere until halfway back to their feeding grounds.
A typical whale song lasts from seven to 15 minutes and contains themes, like verses. The whales repeat these verses over and over.
Female whales may also get bored with the same songs, and that’s why, some experts guess, males change them slightly each year.
Humpback song patterns are unique to each population. Whales inhabiting different oceans sing their own distinct songs.
A few years ago, male humpbacks living off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef startled researchers by singing a completely new song. The scientists recognized the melody as that of Indian Ocean humpbacks living off Australia’s west coast.
Apparently, in only a few months, all 3,000 east coast male whales abandoned their old song and learned the west coast song from a few visiting whales.
This new song is reported to be a hit with the eastern females, but I’m not sure how researchers would know this.
Maybe these rock stars of the barrier reef are taking Polaroid pictures.