WHALE CHAT COMMUNICATION Sound is very important to animals living in aquatic environments as the visibility is often very poor underwater. Researchers have discovered a lot about family relationships of killer whales by listening to the sounds they make. A great deal of information about the social relationships in the resident killer whales has been revealed through this acoustic research. Whales communicate with one another through a wide variety of whistles, squeaks and whines. Canadian researchers have discovered that in resident pods, each whale has the same set of calls, or DIALECT, as other pod members. Dr. John Ford lowering hydrophone to listen The only other mammals known to have true dialects are humans, some monkeys, and the sperm whale. Groups of whales that share the same "dialect" are related to each other. Pods of whales with related dialects are called CLANS. All transient whales along the Pacific Northwest coast appear to share the same dialect. Transients use fewer calls than residents and tend to be silent when foraging for food - unlike residents that are frequently vocal. Calls can be analyzed using SPECTROGRAMS that allow researchers to identify different pods through acoustic means as well as visual clues (i.e. photo identification). By installing remote underwater hydrophones that are linked to cellular phone technology, researchers at the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre hope to be able to locate and identify whale pods by remote listening. The ability to identify killer whales acoustically is a very useful tool for researchers. All pictures and audio © Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre 1999 Killer Facts | Distribution | Snacks & Facts | Clans & Pods | Whale Chat | Behaviour | Mug Shots |