"It turns out that humpbacks near the Great Barrier Reef do so for one main reason--sex. Joshua Smith, a marine biologist at Australia's University of Queensland, has found that though female humpbacks don't actually sing, male songs can be heard up to 12 miles away and can last as long as 22 hours. They are 'likely an important courtship display.' That's not to say the humpbacks are wooing life partners. 'When a male is singing and a female is present, it is not like that male is courting that female for life,' Smith wrote. 'The function of song would be more for immediate reproductive benefits, more like a one-night stand.'"
(Frank Burns writing for Audubon Magazine)
Aka "blowing hot air," in the whale world and human night life as it turns out.
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but, i guess, the difference is that whale songs are nice but a bunch of guys in the corner going oooeeeeeewwwah is not very nice.
ReplyDeletebut thats only my opinion.
It would seem there is a socialbility difference here. Male humpbacks are able to sing without their tongues lolling out the side of their respective oral orfice and their eyes bugging out of their sockets.
ReplyDeleteClose your eyes and they pretty much sound the same, well, with perhaps a little plus on the humpbacks side.
So much of the time, boys only wish they were "humpbacks".