The Importance Of Whale Communication

Countless animal species rely on several means of communication as a tool for their survival, such as visual, chemical, vocal, and gesture. Under the water, however, some senses of communication, such as sight and smell, are often limited, therefore, ‘sound’ is the only effective way of communication that lasts longer and travels further in the water than in the air (Melcón et al, 2012). According to Tyack and Clark (2000), the senior scientists in biology, whales, the world's largest animal, have been using sound as the method of communication for more than a million years. Because sound works differently under the water. Rapid fading, hence, is a feature that does not exist in whale communication, which makes whale communication unique from the other four animal species (talking parrots, birdsong, signing apes, and honey bee). To illustrate, the speed of sound in the water is four times greater than in the atmosphere, which allows sounds to last longer and travel in a further distance than in the air (Melcón et al, 2012). According to Cummings and Thompson (1971), the researchers of Naval Undersea Research and Development Center, blue whale sound can travel of

In addition, the sound of some specific whales is not only used for communication, but also echolocation. Surprisingly, whales also develop cultural transmission like humans, while many other animal species do not have this feature. Furthermore, several features that whales and other animals also have similar to humans are vocal-auditory, broadcast transmission, interchangeability, total feedback, semanticity, discreteness, and arbitrariness, whereas the displacement, duality of patterning, productivity, prevarication, reflexiveness, and learnability, do not exist in whale