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Why do whales sing? We still don’t know everything about their mysterious songs
What are the largest animals currently inhabiting the Earth? They are whales. The record holder — the blue whale — weighs up to 170 tons. That is, as much as 2,700 humans. A newborn fin whale already weighs 2–3 tons. This mammal is bigger even than the extinct dinosaurs. It is probably the largest animal that ever existed on our planet.
The blue whale has a stomach consisting of several chambers. It can consume up to a million calories a day. Fin whales, like other whales, migrate seasonally. During migration, they travel up to 8,000 kilometers. And, like other whales, they sing complex and complicated songs. In the film “Whale Songs” you can hear that the sounds they make spread up to a thousand kilometers.
Where did whales come from?
The ancestors of today’s whales had nothing to do with the sea. Whales are descended from land mammals belonging to the order even-toed ungulates. They are related to indohyus — an extinct mammal that inhabited present-day Asia about 50 million years ago. This animal resembled a pig crossed with a rat. It had none of the characteristics we associate whales with today.
Why did their ancestors choose an aquatic environment to live in? It was probably easier for them to find food and…
