Whales, jazz singers of the open sea

THEIR eerie and haunting sounds have often been described as songs. And that may be because whales have a lot in common with jazz musicians, scientists say.

A three-year study has discovered that bowhead whales, found in the Arctic Ocean, have a repertoire of 184 songs. The mammals sing in a freeform way that involves improvising around one of the tunes.

Bowhead ‘music’ contrasts with that of the other whale known for its singing, the humpback, which produces melodious and less varied songs common to each male population.

Lead researcher Dr Kate Stafford, from the University of Washington in Seattle, said: ‘If humpback whale song is like classical music, bowheads are jazz. The sound is more freeform. And when we looked through four winters of acoustic data, not only were there never any song types repeated between years, but each season had a new set of songs.’

Experts say the noise made by whales is not true singing, but more of a call.

In contrast, birdsong involves complex musical phrases that must be learned.

However, the scientists – who studied a 200-strong bowhead colony off Spitzbergen, Norway – found the creatures had a far more intricate, complex and ever-changing repertoire than they had expected.

‘It was astonishing: bowhead whales were singing loudly, 24 hours a day, from November until April. And they were singing many, many different songs,’ Dr Stafford said. The scientists, whose research is published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, admit there is still a lot to discover about bowheads.

It is not known if it is only the males that sing, whether any of their songs are shared between individuals or why their tunes continually change. The purpose of the musicmaking is also a mystery, but experts believe it may have a role in attracting mates, or possibly as a method of defending territory.

Bowhead whales – so called because of their huge, domed skulls – have the largest mouth of any animal. They can weigh up to 100 tons and live for up to 200 years.

They feed on plankton and break through thick Arctic ice to breathe. Once hunted to near extinction by whaling fleets, there are now an estimated 10,000 worldwide.