{"id":634723,"date":"2026-09-24T16:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/634723\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T16:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:52:14","slug":"humpback-whales-are-some-of-the-oceans-loudest-creatures-so-why-do-they-sometimes-whisper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/634723\/","title":{"rendered":"Humpback whales are some of the ocean\u2019s loudest creatures \u2013 so why do they sometimes \u2018whisper\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Male <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/marine-animals\/humpback-whales\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">humpback whales<\/a> are well-known for their loud, haunting song, but in 2017 researchers discovered that mothers and their calves \u2018whisper\u2019 to each other.<\/p>\n<p>Recordings found that the calves used quiet grunts and squeaks, usually while swimming.<\/p>\n<p>This suggests that the calls help to keep the mothers and calves together in murky waters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also heard a lot of rubbing sounds, like two balloons being rubbed together, which we think was the calf nudging its mother when it wants to nurse,\u201d said lead author Simone Videsen.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"623\" height=\"779\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Mother-calf20pair20in20Exmouth20Gulf2028credit_20623-8d48df1.jpg\" alt=\"Mother-calf20pair20in20Exmouth20Gulf2028credit_20623-8d48df1\" class=\"wp-image-5318\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mother-calf pair in Exmouth Gulf  Fredrik Christiansen<\/p>\n<p>It is thought that the quiet communication reduces the risk of being overhead by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/marine-animals\/facts-about-orcas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">orcas<\/a>, which hunt humpback whale calves.<\/p>\n<p>Tags were attached via suction cups to eight calves and two mothers in the Exmouth Gulf off western Australia. They recorded the movements of the cetaceans and the sounds they made.<\/p>\n<p>The tags remained attached to the whales for up to 48 hours, before detaching and floating to the surface.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"623\" height=\"369\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Humpback20whale20calf20wearing20a20Dtag20in20Exmouth20Gulf2028credit-20Line20Hermannsen2920_20623-54.jpeg\" alt=\"Humpback20whale20calf20wearing20a20Dtag20in20Exmouth20Gulf2028credit-20Line20Hermannsen2920_20623-5478dd1\" class=\"wp-image-5319\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Humpback whale calf wearing a tag in Exmouth Gulf  Line Hermannsen<\/p>\n<p>Humpback whales spend summer feeding in the Arctic or Antarctic, and migrate to the tropics to breed and mate.<\/p>\n<p>The Exmouth Gulf is a nursery area for humpback whale calves. The youngsters will stay with their mothers for about a year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/1365-2435.12871\/full\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Read the full paper in Functional Ecology. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Male humpback whales are well-known for their loud, haunting song, but in 2017 researchers discovered that mothers and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-634723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}