Vocalizations

Vocalization

Beluga Whales are known as the canaries of the sea with good reason. They are the most vocal of all whales and make such a variety of sounds that it's difficult to distinguish individual sounds. These sounds can be heard above and below water and can even be heard through the hulls of ships.(1) Scientists at a New York oceanarium have narrowed the sounds into 11 categories: squeaks, whistles, modulated whistles, trumpet sounds, barking, gritting clatters, peeps, chattering of jaws, warbles, mews and chirps. (Haley, 1978) There sounds fall in many ranges, some believed to be beyond the sensitivity of recoding equipment. The Tonal sounds or whistles and jaw clap sounds seem to be dominant over other vocal expressions (2) The pulsed tones include the screams and buzzing sounds and the lower frequency sound are squawks, barks and blaring sounds. For the use of echolocation they produce broad band clicking sounds.

Cetaceans do not have vocal cords as we do. It is believed that they make their many varied sounds by moving air between two nasal sacs in the blowhole region.(3) This is a controversial area and there are conflicting findings on how they produce these sounds. Another theory is that noises are probably made due to bubbling from their blowholes (4) During sound production, the melon changes shape depending on the sound they are making.

Scientific evidence suggests a relationship between behaviour and vocalizations. Squawk type calls tend to happen during social interaction more than when alarmed. There is at this point no evidence that vocalizations resemble human language. They have more ways of using non-verbal communications than other whales as well. They have more muscles in their faces and are able to make a wide variety of facial expressions and they seem to seek out physical contact with both other belugas and humans.

As in most animals their vocalizations seem to be related mostly to their environment, hunting, safety and, as in other whales, echolocation. If a female senses danger, she may grunt to warn her calf and the calf might respond by making high-pitched whistles.

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Footnotes
(1) 119 Field Guide to Whales, Porpoises and Seals
(2) p127 Handbook of Marine Mammals
(3) Animal Language
(4) p100 Animals as Navigators
(5) p127 Handbook of Marine Mammals