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The Humpback Song
The humpback's song is probably the most complex in the animal kingdom. The song, which is
However, research has shown that often one singing male will be joined by others. Perhaps these males are competing for the attention of a female. It is possible the song is intended for females but ends up luring challengers. Another possibility is that the song could simply be a way to advertise the fitness of the individual, similar to impressive antlers or horns.
Humpback Whale Research at the Aquarium
Once abundant in coastal British Columbia, humpback whales were driven close to extinction by commercial whaling in the early part of this century.
-Nancy Marcus
 All pictures and audio © Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre 2000 |
made up of repeated themes, can last for up to 30 minutes and some humpbacks sing for hours at a time! Only the males sing and all male humpbacks in the same region sing the same song. The song itself changes over time, making it different from year to year. The songs generally occur
during the breeding season, suggesting that it is related to breeding. But why do male
humpbacks sing? The reasons are not entirely clear but there are several possibilities. One is, like male songbirds, humpbacks sing to attract mates.
For many years, sighting a humpback in BC waters was a rare event. However, ongoing field studies by Dr. John Ford and colleagues are
revealing that humpbacks are making a strong comeback in the province and in the North Pacific generally. Just as your fingerprint can be used to identify you, humpbacks are individually
identified from natural pigmentation patterns and nicks or scars on the underside of the tail flukes. So far, 500 individual humpbacks have been identified in waters off the Queen
Charlotte Islands. Comparisons of these 'mug shots' with others taken by researchers in different areas have shown that these whales also travel to southeastern Alaska during the summer months, and to other locations in BC. Fluke matches have also shown that at least some
Queen Charlotte humpbacks migrate to the Hawaiian Islands for the
winter breeding season. ID photos from the Queen Charlotte Islands were used together with photos from other regions to produce a statistical model of the humpback population in the North Pacific. The best estimate is now 15,000 whales for this ocean basin, which is at least 5 times higher than previously thought.