Even 100 km Apart, These Whales Can Still Communicate

[Article déjà publié le 16 août 2024]

To communicate humans, we use our voice when we are close and technologically advanced means of communication when we are distant. If this is very useful for us, other species would have developed this capacity. This is evidenced by the recent discoveries made on boreal whales.

Excellent swimmers, sometimes over very long distances, the boreal whales would also be good at communicating with each other when they are very distant. This is in any case what a study published on August 15, 2024 highlights in the journal Physical Review Research.

Studying the behavior of boreal whales …

Before taking an interest in the communication capacity of boreal whales, it is first necessary to understand how they work as an individual. To do this, Evgeny A. Podolskiy, main author of the study and biologist at the Arctic Research Center of the University of Hokkaido in Japan, undertook to study the behavior of 12 boreal whales off Greenland.

Over a period of 144 days, 12 cetaceans were therefore monitored in their lifestyle and in particular one in particular: that of diving.

Indeed, with regard to the results of the study, the boreal whales would adopt a so -called vertical migration behavior. The latter is to dive as deeply as possible during the day and then gradually go up to more easily follow prey which constitute its diet. Namely, krill and crustaceans.

As IFLSCience, which is the relay of discovery, specifies, the fact that this was observed in the spring is a great first because it shows that the boreal whales plunge deep at the same time as their prey.

But that's not all, the researchers discovered much more.

… Discovering an extraordinary competence

Thanks to the close surveillance of the behavior of 12 boreal whales in Disko bay in western Greenland, the researchers were therefore able to highlight a certain synchronicity between the whales and their prey.

But what they were not ready to observe is a completely unprecedented behavior. Indeed, two of the twelve boreal whales studied had a completely amazing behavior.

These, according to the diving surveys analyzes, would take the direction of the bottom at the same time. Nothing surprising. Researchers have shown that these two specimens often found themselves within a relatively close department. However, the two boreal whales also kept this behavior when they were 100 kilometers away.

The two animals synchronize their diving. On the other hand, the depth reached during it were not the same. For researchers, this simple data would only be linked to the characteristics of individuals. Some therefore plunging more deeply than the others.

A well -oiled avoidance strategy?

If the observation of such behavior, through diving surveys is an interesting discovery since it would highlight the capacity for socialization of boreal whales and the holding of “long-distance relationships”, it would be necessary to know why it appears.

During the study, no recording of the possible songs of the whales have been recorded, the scientists can therefore not rely on a possible communication to support their remarks.

However, they hypothesize that this synchronized dive, sometimes 100 kilometers away could be a predators' avoidance strategy. Indeed, the cold water of the Arctic are found to be the privileged hunting ground of orcas. So to prevent one of the two individuals from getting caught, as much to synchronize the moment when diving is made.

In words reported by Iflscience, Evgeny Podolskiy expresses his amazement as to this discovery and also calls for other scientists to do research in this sense: “The possibility of acoustically connected boreal whales, which seem to dive alone but which are in fact together, is breathtaking. […] We encourage the community of researchers to collect more simultaneous marking data in order to confirm whether our interpretation is appropriate.»

Boreal whales in short

Living exclusively in arctic waters, hence their names of boreal whales, Balaena Mysicetus are bonk cetaceans that can reach 100 tonnes.

Can measure up to 20 meters, they often swim near the ice floe in shallow waters, according to WWF. Its head, massive and which represents almost a third of its size, would allow it to smash layers of ice thick 20 centimeters to be able to breathe between two dives.

A good way for them to avoid being stuck under the ice floe. In the 19th century in particular and also before, the boreal whales were decimated by whale hunters. Today, there are almost 10,000 of them, but their status is still worrying for WWF Canada.

Source: Iflscience