Friday, March 25, 2011

Sperm whales use names?

Messages broadcast by sperm whales seem to come with a speaker's signature. At least that's how it looks based on a new scientific paper about sperm whale sounds. Could it be true that whales use names?

It makes sense, if you're a sperm whale listening to whale chit-chat, you want to know who's talking when you hear a juicy bit of gossip. Hey, guess who was out fooling around last night...?? Oh yeah, says who??

Here's an example of a sperm whale sound, and here's a place where you can click and listen to an entire collection of sounds from sperm whales.

2 comments:

Mildred Lynn McDonald said...

Hello Mark,

Thanks a million for posting the link to: http://www.whalesongs.org/cetacean/

I just included it in my blog comment section for "A Pinch of 'Salt' and a Whale of a Journey Begins".

Enjoy the day!

Mildred Lynn (McDonald)
http://mildredlynn.blogspot.com/

Complete Aquatics said...

Love your blog! Interesting post :)