- On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we speak with Jim Darling, a marine biologist who is here to play us some recordings of remarkably similar humpback whale songs from around the world.
- Darling and colleagues found that North Pacific humpback whale songs can be incredibly similar to each other — nearly identical, in fact. That means that our view of the whales as living in distinct groups might very well be wrong. And that view dictates a lot of the conservation measures we’ve designed to protect imperiled populations of humpbacks.
- Darling joins us today to talk about his humpback research and play us some of those recordings so you can hear the similarity for yourself.
Today we speak with Jim Darling, a marine biologist who is here to play us some recordings of remarkably similar humpback whale songs from around the world.
Listen here:
Together with colleagues around the world, Darling, a marine biologist with the Hawaii-based NGO Whale Trust, recorded humpback whale songs over the course of three breeding seasons at sites across the Pacific: in the Philippines, Japan, Hawai‘i, and Mexico. The researchers found that those songs can be incredibly similar to each other — nearly identical, in fact. That means that our view of the whales as living in distinct groups might very well be wrong. And that view dictates a lot of the conservation measures we’ve designed to protect imperiled populations of humpbacks.
Darling joins us today to talk about his humpback research and play us some of those recordings so you can hear the similarity for yourself.
Back in July we featured here on the Mongabay Newscast the first ever recordings of North Atlantic right whales singing. If you listened to those recordings, the right whales repeat one sound, what’s called a gunshot call — not the most melodic of tunes. But as you’ll hear on this episode, humpbacks have a much bigger repertoire of calls.
Here’s this episode’s top news:
- New monkey species found in Amazon forest area that’s fast disappearing
- Disaster strikes in Bolivia as fires lay waste to unique forests
- New UN report takes stock of renewable energy’s decade-long growth spurt
Would you like to hear how Mongabay grew out of its founder’s childhood adventures in rainforests and a fascination with frogs? Or how a Mongabay editor reacted to meeting one of the world’s last Bornean rhinos? We now offer Insider Content that delivers behind-the-scenes reporting and stories like these from our team. For a small monthly donation, you’ll get exclusive access and support our work in a new way. Visit mongabay.com/insider to learn more and join the growing community of Mongabay readers on the inside track.
If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, we ask that you please consider becoming a monthly sponsor via our Patreon page, at patreon.com/mongabay. Just a dollar per month will really help us offset the production costs and hosting fees, so if you’re a fan of our audio reports from nature’s frontline, please support the Mongabay Newscast at patreon.com/mongabay.
You can subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on Android, the Google Podcasts app, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, RSS, Castbox, Pocket Casts, and via Spotify. Or listen to all our episodes via the Mongabay website here on the podcast homepage.
Follow Mike Gaworecki on Twitter: @mikeg2001
FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.
