The humpback whales of Southeast Alaska haven’t altered their calls for 36 years, while their songs, which are patterned vocalizations unlike the single note delivered by a call, have been dynamic. The researchers compared recordings from the 1970s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s and suggest the constancy of whale calls may be due to a role in group dynamics, just as ever-changing whale songs may be significant for the purposes of mating. Their findings were published September 27 in Scientific Reports.
M. Fournet et al., “Some things never change: multidecadal stability in humpback whale calling repertoire on Southeast Alaskan foraging grounds,” Sci Rep-UK, doi:10.1038/s41598-018-31527-x, 2018.
