The Whales Speak
Cetaceans, including toothed whales and baleen whales, are a diverse group of animals often famed for their intelligence and communication skills. Dawood discusses more…
Whales communicate with one another through songs that consist of repeatable and predictable noises. This can be visualised using a song spectrogram, with the song-lines resembling musical notes. Illustration by Alicia Hayden.
The group of animals that, in my opinion, have shown intense levels of both stereotypical and different levels of intelligence, and the reason I chose to study marine biology at university, are the Cetaceans. Cetaceans include the toothed whales (dolphins, porpoises, sperm whales, etc.) and the baleen or filterfeeding whales (humpback whales, blue whales, etc.), and are a diverse and incredible group of animals.
Communication is the ability to make another understand what you're thinking, or at least convey a message, and is one that requires different levels of intelligence. Everything communicates. There is usually one form or another of making a message be heard and understood by another. For example, ants are the masters of communicating with their bodies - an antenna twitch, a leg movement or an abdomen wriggle can mean multiple things. They use these, along with pheromones to communicate. Bees are known to use dance to show other bees where they have found food or to suggest danger. Meerkats use barking, birds call and use bright colours, chameleons change colour - there are many ways that animals communicate.
Humans use language - crafted, structured and varied. We have multiple words for different things, we have different words for the same thing. It’s the pinnacle of intelligent communication...according to its users. But we, the so-called masters of language, are not alone. There are other animals that share this feature; the Cetaceans.
Whales communicate with one another through songs that consist of repeatable and predictable noises. This can be visualised using a song spectrogram, with the song-lines resembling musical notes. Illustration by Alicia Hayden.
Cetaceans, like us, are highly social individuals; most will often travel in groups called ‘pods’, and are rarely seen on their own. They, therefore, require communication to survive, as without it they would find life extremely hard. Working together is essential for hunting, raising young and protection. It also comes down to their environment. Cetaceans are fully aquatic animals, and water is a better transmitter of sound than air. Cetaceans, like most underwater animals, have highly developed acoustic capabilities. These capabilities can manifest as non-vocal or vocal behaviours. Whilst the non-vocal behaviours are indeed important in communicating, it’s the vocal behaviours which astounded me.
There are different vocal communication which are practised by the different types of Cetaceans; the Toothed whales and Baleen whales. Baleen, or filter feeding Whales spend long periods of time searching for minute organisms to “filter” from the water. There’s a massive variety of vocalisations they use, such as the famous “Whale Song”, and most are used to communicate socially. They have long distance songs, songs to threaten others or identify themselves, songs for mates, and greeting songs.
These songs have different frequencies- low frequency moans (20-200Hz) can go on for at least 30 seconds and are used for long distance messages. It has been suggested that if they weren’t interrupted by barriers like ships and land, these calls could travel the entire distance of the globe. There are short-frequency “thumps and knocks”, that last 1 or 2 seconds and are used to get attention from the rest of the pod. The rhythms of these songs have been compared to human music, in particular that of veteran composers, in terms of their beauty, intricacy and complex structure.
For the toothed whales there are clicks, pulses and echolocation, mostly associated with dolphins. They are quite playful animals - highly energetic and powerful.
It is in the toothed whales we come across dialects. Dialect refers to the difference in a language according to where they are from. Some scientists have actually suggested that dialects are used to stop inbreeding, as dolphins will recognise their own group by their dialect, as opposed to other groups, who’s dialect may differ. But it is also shown as a way of groups maintaining bonds and increasing family ties, almost akin to human society.
There are currently only 2 cetacean species with dialects that have been described or studied; Sperm Whales and famous Killer Whales (Orcas). These two species of whales are linked by characteristics of their “societies”; the matrilineal group structure, meaning that they are all linked by maternal descent, and they also live in stable, structured, multilevel societies. These animals have hierarchy with levels of social identity - social units (individuals grouped together as “friends'' or “allies”) , vocal clans (groups of individuals that communicate with one another using the same language or calls) and individuals. The only other places this level of societal structure has been shown is in us humans, our friends the elephants, and primates.
Dialects have been shown to be part of the “culture” of dolphins and marine mammals, and are passed down through being taught and via genetics in some cases. Cetaceans are highly sophisticated, intelligent animals, and we are only just beginning to understand their language structure, let alone the usage of most of these terms and interpretations. They are complex and have qualities we can relate to but also qualities we don’t yet understand.
We are surrounded by intelligent life, and the evidence is all here, in these beautiful, extraordinary creatures.
Thank you to Alicia Hayden for her beautiful illustrations. You can find more of her work on Instagram @aliciahaydenwildlife.
Dawood Qureshi
My name’s Dawood Qureshi and I’m a Wildlife Film-Maker, Writer, Freelance Journalist, Photographer, Artist, Podcast-host, Activist, and Marine Biology student. I have a passion for wildlife and conservation and speaking about issues like diversity and politics, and for as long as I can remember I have always had a passion for storytelling; I believe it’s the most powerful form of communication, and by telling stories I wish to raise awareness and push change by crafting narratives and sharing others' stories.
You can find Dawood on social media at the links below.
Twitter: @GoWildForBees
Instagram: @dawood_dq and @wildheartwithacamera
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/altbrownwriter