As intimidating as they seem closely, humpback whales often see humans as friends, not enemies. The sociability of these sweet souls is perhaps better represented by a curious behavior that they present as humans approached, in which they create large bubble rings that resemble “smoke rings” on the surface.
A recent study published in Marine mammals science suggests that humpback whales can send bubble rings like messages to humans as a way to break ice. Strong whales are known to use bubbles as tools, but these new observations reveal a playful side to their skills. Their friendly bubble behavior is the last sign that whales intelligence is extremely complex and needs additional research.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcfmatspvms
Bump and humans
Bump whales are known to be calm and non -aggressive during meetings with humans. In fact, these whales rarely attack humans not caused, and any damage that they inflict on ships can simply be an unhappy incident caused by bad view.
The humpback whales even show interest in humans, displaying curious behavior such as spy hops, when they vary the head vertically to see what is happening around them.
Bump whales are not only curious creatures, but also ingenious creatures. They use a range of bubble techniques – their breath or their mouth – for various reasons. The bubbles are sometimes used in agonism displays, or competition, among the male humpback whales which are in the running to be the main escort for a woman. Other times, whales use “Bubble nets” For Corral prey, creating underwater curtains that act like barriers, trapping small animals like juvenile salmon and krill.
Learn more:: Big eyes, blurred vision: why the humpback whales have trouble seeing clearly
Socializing whales with bubble rings
To have an overview of how the whales communicate, the new study explored 12 episodes of bubble cycles obtained by scientists and citizen researchers. These events involved 39 bubble rings of 11 individual whales, examined by video and photo sequences.
The results, on the whole, illustrate how the humpback whales produce bubble rings such as curious behavior while approaching boats.
“Bumpy whales often have a curious and friendly behavior towards boats and human swimmers,” said co-directed author Jodi Frediani, marine fauna and affiliate photographer of the UC Davis, in a statement. “We have now located a dozen whales from around the world, the majority of whom voluntarily addressed boats and swimmers who blow bubble rings during these curious episodes.”
The agonist behaviors were not exhibited during none of the episodes of Bubble Ring, which means that the whales were not aggressive and did not feel threatened. According to the researchers, the whales have not even shown “light forms of embarrassment and escape” such as diving or the increase in their swimming speeds.
On the contrary, whales seemed relaxed in their movements. A plethora of fun activities accompanied the episodes of Bubble Ring, including the grinding of the tail and the slaps of the pectoral fins.
Understand the communication of whales
Bubble Ring episodes show how the humpback whales are trying to become a chummy with humans, but the true extent of this behavior is still not fully understood.
Other species of whales also have a conviviality towards humans, such as ball whales and gray whales that approach and interact with boats. The way in which whales communicate in the presence of humans also remain a lasting subject of interest for scientists; orcasFor example, seems to be able to imitate human speech with clicks and whistles.
The bubble rings made by humpback whales could be one of these complex methods of interspecified communication. The researchers say that there is a place for future studies to discover how exactly these whales can change the structure of the bubble rings with their blowing holes, presenting certain gestures during the interaction with humans.
Bubble Ring’s episodes reinforce the idea that there is still a lot to learn about humpback whales, while they continue to amaze us with their exceptional intelligence and outgoing nature.
“Bumpy whales live in complex societies, are acoustically diverse, use bubble tools and help other species harassed by predators,” said co-directed author Fred Sharpe, an Affilié UC Davis, in a press release. “Now, similar to a candidate signal, we show that they blow bubble rings in our direction in an apparent attempt to interact with playfulness, to observe our answer and / or to engage in a form of communication.”
Find out more: Orcs imitate human speech as a way to communicate with us
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com Use studies evaluated by high -quality peers and sources for our articles, and our publishers examine scientific precision and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Jack Knudson is a deputy editor -in -chief to discover with a strong interest in environmental sciences and history. Before joining Discover in 2023, he studied journalism at the Ohio University Scripps College of Communication and previously interned at Recycling TODAY magazine.
