How Do Humpback Whales Work?

Humpback whales are back from the brink of extinction thanks to conservation efforts. Learn about their songs, acrobatics, and life cycle in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/humpback-whale.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
brain Stuff Lauren Volga Baum here. Known for their mystical songs,
global travel, and impressive gymnastics, pumpback whales are one of
the ocean's most captivating and complex giants. While they aren't
as big as the blue whale, which is the largest

(00:22):
animal on the planet, pumpback whales are still quite the whoppers,
growing up to sixty feet that's over eighteen meters long
and weighing up to forty tons that's about the length
of a city bus but the weight of two. The
hump that forms under their small dorsal fin when they breach,
that is, when they throw apart or all of their

(00:44):
bodies out of the water, gives them their recognizable name.
They have a uniquely huge tail and pectoral fins. Their
backside is black, and their underbelly is a varying mix
of both black and white. What appear from a distance
to be decorative lines on their underside are actually ventral plates.
These plates fold open and allow the whale's throat cavity

(01:06):
to expand, so they can scoop up copious amounts of
water and thus their prey. When they feed Humpback whales
are one of fourteen species of bailen whales, type of
whale that has balan plates instead of teeth. Balan plates
are long, thick, bristly fibers made of keratin attached to
their upper jaw. These are useful because, despite the whale's

(01:30):
massive size, humpbacks like to show down on much smaller
sea creatures like plankton, krill, anchovies, and cod. They gulp
in enough water to fill a swimming pool, and then
when they expel it, the baileean plates filter in those
tiny tasty creatures. Also, if you've ever heard of whale
bone used in vintage corsetry, these are the whale bones

(01:53):
in question if you're imagining a diver getting scooped up
in all that water. Never year, though these whales are
a lot bigger than us, they're not built to swallow
us sized animals. While there esophagus thus stretch a little
when they swallow a meal, their throat and those of
most whale species, isn't any wider than a human fist,

(02:15):
and if you ended up in their mouth by mistake,
you would promptly be spit out, which has happened before.
And the divers have lived to tell the tale. Humpback
whales can be found in all oceans around the globe,
in part due to having one of the longest migration
patterns of all mammals. Humpback populations spend part of the
year feeding and fattening up in colder waters, and then

(02:38):
head to tropical or subtropical oceans to focus on mating.
Females generally produce a single calf every two to three
years on average, which might not seem like much, but
those calves will live for approximately eighty to ninety years.
Humpback whales tend to live close to shore, and since
they often slap the water and reach the surface, they're

(03:01):
a frequent and awe inspiring site for whale watchers. For
the article, this episode is based on How Stuff Work.
Spoke by email with Ed Lyman, a natural resource management
specialist at the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.
He explained that scientists believe these acrobatics likely serve more
than one purpose. A quote. First, it may be a

(03:24):
grooming or cleaning mechanism. You throw all or most of
forty tons in the case of a typical adult humpback
whale of your body out of the water and come
crashing back down. You're very likely to remove loose skin parasites,
and in general, any biofouling. Doing so reduces drag and
helps maintain the animals hydrodynamic form. It reduces your energy budget.

(03:48):
Other possibilities include the movement and or the sound of
the splash as a means of communication, as displays of
aggression or competitiveness, or as a come hither during breeding displays,
but Lyman said it may just be fun. When we
seek halves breaching and sanctuary waters, we tend to lean
toward this interpretation, though this applies to adults as well.

(04:13):
Humpbacks are master communicators. The males compose grunts and wines
and the complex songs that travel great distances under water.
Researchers are still debating the exact purpose of the music,
though it's generally thought to be part of mating displays,
as more tends to happen during breeding season. How Stuff

(04:33):
Works also spoke by email with Mark Lammer's PhD, a
research ecologist who is also with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback
Whale National Marine Sanctuary. He says the biggest question is
who exactly the males are serenading. While it's possible that
females choose their mates based on these songs, there's little
evidence of that so far. Quote there's more behavioral evidence

(04:57):
to suggest that other males pay close attention to the
singing of their competitors. As a result, several researchers myself included,
believe that song may help to mediate male male interactions
by potentially communicating the competitive fitness of a singer to
potential competitors. Males within each population sing the same song

(05:18):
with room for improvisation, but just as we humans have
different voice characteristics, so do whales. Lambers said. It's that
individual variability that may carry important information about a male's
fitness and therefore its ability to compete for a female
that other males and possibly females may be listening for.

(05:39):
Due to centuries of intense commercial whaling, the entire humpback
population was listed as endangered in nineteen seventy, but things
started looking up in when the International Whaling Commission's final
whaling moratorium on commercial harvest took effect. Today, they still
sometimes get caught in fishing gear or collide with boats,

(06:01):
but their population is thankfully increasing. Only four out of
fourteen distinct populations are still listed as endangered. With continued conservation,
these gentle giants will continue to sing, splash about, and
amaze us all. Today's episode is based on the article

(06:23):
Pumpback whales have made an amazing comeback from extinction on
how stuff works dot Com, written by Katie Carmen. Brain
Stuff is a production of iHeart Radio in partnership with
how stuff works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang.
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