Whales are very fascinating creatures, and especially the way that they communicate with one antoher. Probably everyone has heard a whale call, if not, I have one right below here.
Now, you've heard the whale's call. I want to know what YOU think, you can check the google form at the bottom of the page. So, now to the learning part. Whales have many reasons and ways to communicate with eachother. I'm going to start with the ways that they can. There are two types of whales, baleen and toothed whales, the mouth is not the only difference. Whales have larynxes which only baleen whales to make their song, for toothed whales, they use their nasal passageways. Some more ways that whales can communicate is with clicks as well as slapping their tails and fins.
All of those methods for communication that they use are all in their songs, except for the slapping of fins. As you heard in the video, they use all sorts of things to make those songs. The songs are very sophisticated and can carry a lot of information in one song. Also, for toothed whales the range of kHz (pitch) is 5-150 and baleen whales is 0-5.
There are many many things that whales can communicate to one another. Including: Finding food, fighting over food, fighting over mates, scaring prey (alive food,) to compete for territory, socialize navigate, share navigation information, and distinguish friends from other prey and predators. Thats A LOT . Now, specifically clicks seem to be used for navigation and knowing what is around them specifically. These songs can be very long and sophisticated, and studies have found that they can contain a lot of information in one song. Another study also showed that whales seem to have different dialects (slight changes in language) between different pods.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/189XxRmXLT4QwRAhc0kzBlXApq9NgfPjfb31QRD82Qzs/edit?tab=t.0