What's new // Beluga communication
Belugas, nicknamed “sea canaries”, are one of the most loquacious cetacean species, producing an impressive array of sounds for a variety of purposes, such as social communication, group cohesion, maintaining mother-calf contact, navigating, and detecting prey.
“Dot is back!” exclaims Jaclyn from atop our beluga observation tower. We photo-identified this female beluga during our second field day. “That dimple below her dorsal ridge isn’t just a charming beauty mark, it’ll help us re-sight her over the summer…and hopefully next summer too!” – Jaclyn tweeted. Now, only a day later, Dot is…
Beluga whales produce a multitude of sounds for a variety of functions. To date, calls used for group cohesion and for mother-calf contact, known as ‘contact calls’, are the best understood 4,6,8,11,13,14. The fact that contact calls sound nothing like the typical chirps and whistles that are common in the beluga vocal repertoire, but instead…