Baleen whales, including humpbacks, have developed a unique “voice box” that allows them to sing while submerged.
The finding, which was reported in the journal Nature, also clarified why these ocean giants find human sounds to be so upsetting.
Whale song is limited to a specific frequency that coincides with ship noise.
As the only means by which they can locate one another to mate in the water, sound is very essential to their existence, according to study leader Prof. Coen Elemans of the University of Southern Denmark.
There are fourteen species of baleen whales, which include the blue, humpback, right, minke, and gray whales. The animals have plates of something called baleen in place of teeth, which they use to filter enormous mouthfuls of microscopic organisms out of the water.
How exactly they write intricate, frequently eerie melodies has been a secret up until now. Prof. Elemans described the realization as “super-exciting”.
