Life on earth is a never-ending slog of tragedy punctuated by moments of joy. This is one of those.
The rest of the world may be falling apart, but this humble back page scribe would like to bring you a key piece of good news: whales are singing.
To be clear, the whales have always sung. There’s just more of them in the choir now.
Humpback whale populations in the southern hemisphere were pushed to the brink at the height of the illegal whaling trade but have increased five-fold in New Caledonia alone over the past two decades.
While the exact role of singing in whale courtship still isn’t fully understood, it’s only the male humpback whales who produce song and they mostly do this during breeding season.
Males who successfully pair up will then escort the female and her calf around and defend her for a while. Could it be guarding behaviour to make sure that no other males sow their wild oats with that particular female? Probably.
But this is a good news story so we’re going to think of these as whale dates. Maybe they go to the milk bar or the discotheque. Maybe they wear little whale bow ties.
According to new research published in Current Biology, singing among New Caledonian humpback whales has become over-represented in older age classes as the population has expanded.
“Within any given breeding aggregation, an increase in population abundance, as observed on the humpback whale breeding ground in New Caledonia, ultimately results in a male’s increased probability of encountering other male competitors and/or female mates (i.e., increased density),” the article reads.
“In the current study, singing became over-represented in older age classes (>16 years) in the higher abundance period, thus suggesting it is both an age-related (this study) and a density-related display.
“Singing may aid a male in finding or attracting a female mate, especially at low density; however, once male density increases to a certain threshold, these benefits may be outweighed by the costs of attracting an increasing number of male competitors, unless the singer himself has a higher chance of being competitively superior (e.g., older, larger, and/ or more experienced).”
The increasing population of older male singers correlated with increased reproductive success in times of higher abundance.
Good for them.
Send your melodious story tips to Holly@medicalrepublic.com.au.
