Sign up FAST! Login

Blue Whales are the loudest animals on the planet, and might hear each other up to 1000 miles away.


Stashed in: Interconnectedness!, Facts, Whales, Sounds!

To save this post, select a stash from drop-down menu or type in a new one:

Top Reddit comment:

But sperm whales are louder! source

I work with whales actually. As soon as a sperm whale enters any bay where we're trying to do hydrophone recordings, we have to abandon the project because the sperm whales are so incredibly noisy. Not only are their calls loud, but they NEVER SHUT UP. Before sperm whales show up, you can spend day after day recording peaceful moans and groans and moos from right whales, humpbacks, blues, fins, seis and the like, then a sperm whale moves in and suddenly it's just ten zillion sperm whale squeaks, echolocation clicks, "creaks", "codas", and "clangs" at 200dB a pop for hours on end. It's suspected they can actually stun their prey (deep sea squid) with sonic blasts.

The whale we study, right whales, usually shut up and leave when sperm whales move in. It's probably prey-driven but we've always wondered if the sperm whale calls just annoy them.

More Reddit comments:

http://reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/2pwce8/til_that_blue_whales_are_among_the_loudest/

The best part of sleeping below deck is listening to whale song.  

That seems like it means something deeper.  :)

Is it a song, per se?

It's what it's called because "vocalization" doesn't do it credit.

Yodeling?

:) :) :)

TIL sperm whales are annoying.

As annoying as yodelers? :)

Even yodelers have their place in the universe.  

Isn't it interesting that both pandas and whales are chatty?

panda talking on train gif Imgur

Haha, pandas aren't really chatty in real life, right?

When I see animated gifs like that one (which I first saw on PandaWhale), I wonder what "real life" is.

Something Freddie Mercury used to wonder regularly, too.

It's all interconnected.

You May Also Like: