Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Volga Baum here. Known for their mystical songs,
Speaker 1: global travel, and impressive gymnastics, pumpback whales are one of
Speaker 1: the ocean's most captivating and complex giants. While they aren't
Speaker 1: as big as the blue whale, which is the largest
Speaker 1: animal on the planet, pumpback whales are still quite the whoppers,
Speaker 1: growing up to sixty feet that's over eighteen meters long
Speaker 1: and weighing up to forty tons that's about the length
Speaker 1: of a city bus but the weight of two. The
Speaker 1: hump that forms under their small dorsal fin when they breach,
Speaker 1: that is, when they throw apart or all of their
Speaker 1: bodies out of the water, gives them their recognizable name.
Speaker 1: They have a uniquely huge tail and pectoral fins. Their
Speaker 1: backside is black, and their underbelly is a varying mix
Speaker 1: of both black and white. What appear from a distance
Speaker 1: to be decorative lines on their underside are actually ventral plates.
Speaker 1: These plates fold open and allow the whale's throat cavity
Speaker 1: to expand, so they can scoop up copious amounts of
Speaker 1: water and thus their prey. When they feed Humpback whales
Speaker 1: are one of fourteen species of bailen whales, type of
Speaker 1: whale that has balan plates instead of teeth. Balan plates
Speaker 1: are long, thick, bristly fibers made of keratin attached to
Speaker 1: their upper jaw. These are useful because, despite the whale's
Speaker 1: massive size, humpbacks like to show down on much smaller
Speaker 1: sea creatures like plankton, krill, anchovies, and cod. They gulp
Speaker 1: in enough water to fill a swimming pool, and then
Speaker 1: when they expel it, the baileean plates filter in those
Speaker 1: tiny tasty creatures. Also, if you've ever heard of whale
Speaker 1: bone used in vintage corsetry, these are the whale bones
Speaker 1: in question if you're imagining a diver getting scooped up
Speaker 1: in all that water. Never year, though these whales are
Speaker 1: a lot bigger than us, they're not built to swallow
Speaker 1: us sized animals. While there esophagus thus stretch a little
Speaker 1: when they swallow a meal, their throat and those of
Speaker 1: most whale species, isn't any wider than a human fist,
Speaker 1: and if you ended up in their mouth by mistake,
Speaker 1: you would promptly be spit out, which has happened before.
Speaker 1: And the divers have lived to tell the tale. Humpback
Speaker 1: whales can be found in all oceans around the globe,
Speaker 1: in part due to having one of the longest migration
Speaker 1: patterns of all mammals. Humpback populations spend part of the
Speaker 1: year feeding and fattening up in colder waters, and then
Speaker 1: head to tropical or subtropical oceans to focus on mating.
Speaker 1: Females generally produce a single calf every two to three
Speaker 1: years on average, which might not seem like much, but
Speaker 1: those calves will live for approximately eighty to ninety years.
Speaker 1: Humpback whales tend to live close to shore, and since
Speaker 1: they often slap the water and reach the surface, they're
Speaker 1: a frequent and awe inspiring site for whale watchers. For
Speaker 1: the article, this episode is based on How Stuff Work.
Speaker 1: Spoke by email with Ed Lyman, a natural resource management
Speaker 1: specialist at the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.
Speaker 1: He explained that scientists believe these acrobatics likely serve more
Speaker 1: than one purpose. A quote. First, it may be a
Speaker 1: grooming or cleaning mechanism. You throw all or most of
Speaker 1: forty tons in the case of a typical adult humpback
Speaker 1: whale of your body out of the water and come
Speaker 1: crashing back down. You're very likely to remove loose skin parasites,
Speaker 1: and in general, any biofouling. Doing so reduces drag and
Speaker 1: helps maintain the animals hydrodynamic form. It reduces your energy budget.
Speaker 1: Other possibilities include the movement and or the sound of
Speaker 1: the splash as a means of communication, as displays of
Speaker 1: aggression or competitiveness, or as a come hither during breeding displays,
Speaker 1: but Lyman said it may just be fun. When we
Speaker 1: seek halves breaching and sanctuary waters, we tend to lean
Speaker 1: toward this interpretation, though this applies to adults as well.
Speaker 1: Humpbacks are master communicators. The males compose grunts and wines
Speaker 1: and the complex songs that travel great distances under water.
Speaker 1: Researchers are still debating the exact purpose of the music,
Speaker 1: though it's generally thought to be part of mating displays,
Speaker 1: as more tends to happen during breeding season. How Stuff
Speaker 1: Works also spoke by email with Mark Lammer's PhD, a
Speaker 1: research ecologist who is also with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback
Speaker 1: Whale National Marine Sanctuary. He says the biggest question is
Speaker 1: who exactly the males are serenading. While it's possible that
Speaker 1: females choose their mates based on these songs, there's little
Speaker 1: evidence of that so far. Quote there's more behavioral evidence
Speaker 1: to suggest that other males pay close attention to the
Speaker 1: singing of their competitors. As a result, several researchers myself included,
Speaker 1: believe that song may help to mediate male male interactions
Speaker 1: by potentially communicating the competitive fitness of a singer to
Speaker 1: potential competitors. Males within each population sing the same song
Speaker 1: with room for improvisation, but just as we humans have
Speaker 1: different voice characteristics, so do whales. Lambers said. It's that
Speaker 1: individual variability that may carry important information about a male's
Speaker 1: fitness and therefore its ability to compete for a female
Speaker 1: that other males and possibly females may be listening for.
Speaker 1: Due to centuries of intense commercial whaling, the entire humpback
Speaker 1: population was listed as endangered in nineteen seventy, but things
Speaker 1: started looking up in when the International Whaling Commission's final
Speaker 1: whaling moratorium on commercial harvest took effect. Today, they still
Speaker 1: sometimes get caught in fishing gear or collide with boats,
Speaker 1: but their population is thankfully increasing. Only four out of
Speaker 1: fourteen distinct populations are still listed as endangered. With continued conservation,
Speaker 1: these gentle giants will continue to sing, splash about, and
Speaker 1: amaze us all. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: Pumpback whales have made an amazing comeback from extinction on
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot Com, written by Katie Carmen. Brain
Speaker 1: Stuff is a production of iHeart Radio in partnership with
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang.
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