NOAA: ‘Researchers have found that right whale calls, much like human voices, change as individuals age. In a study published in Animal Behaviour, scientists examined 986 high-quality calls from 49 individual North Atlantic right whales of known ages spanning from 1 month to 37 years. Much like those of human infants and other mammals, calls made by whales younger than 1 year were shorter and less structured than adult sounds. As the animals matured their calls became more clear, with better defined structure and longer call durations.
“Acoustic maturation does not stop when a female right whale reaches sexual maturity at about age 9 and for males around 15,” said Sofie Van Parijs, leader of the passive acoustic program at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. and a co-author of the study. “The calls continue to develop as the animal ages, decades after it is physically mature. The frequency and duration of these calls may be able to tell us about body weight and size, and physical condition, including stamina”…
Previous studies have shown they have complex, information-rich calls and a large repertoire, including quick gunshot and constant frequency tonal calls, high to low sweeping “down-calls,” and low to high-sweeping “upcalls.” Upcalls are used by all ages of right whales as contact calls between individuals’. SOURCE…
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