Hungry baleen whale babies may burp, bark and snort as a way of begging for food from their mother.
Scientists attached camera tags to eight humpback whale calves to learn about their calls in different situations and contexts.
In the adorable video – shot from the calf’s perspective – the young whale surfaces to breathe before making low-frequency vocalisations, then going to its mother to suckle milk.
According to the researchers, the young whales rarely vocalised while travelling or resting. However, “suckling sessions were mainly associated with two sets of low-frequency calls corresponding to previously described burping, barking and snorting sounds,” say the authors in the study, published in the journal Proceedings B. The little ones also made whoop-like sounds while playing.
“This study offers new insights into baleen whale behaviour, underscores the importance of social calls in mother–calf interactions and enhances our understanding of communication systems in aquatic mammalian mother–young pairs,” says the study.
Credit: Ratsimbazafindranahaka MN, Huetz C, Saloma A, Andrianarimisa A, Adam O, Charrier I. 2024 Behavioural context of call production in humpback whale calves: identification of potential begging calls in a mysticetes species. Proc. R. Soc. B 291: 20242048. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.2048. Video taken in Sainte Marie, Madagascar, 2022
