To the question Why do whales hear each other at a distance of thousands of kilometers? given by the author Landrail the best answer is The hearing organs are greatly modified. The auricle is missing. The auditory canal is narrowed and opens behind the eye with a small opening; Apparently, it serves as a separate sensory organ that perceives changes in pressure. The eardrum is curved outward (baleen whales) or inward (toothed whales). Cetaceans perceive sound through the bones of the skull and lower jaw, the posterior end of which is close to the area of the inner ear and innervated by a branch of the trigeminal nerve. The structure of the inner ear in cetaceans is very complex, with an enlarged cochlea. Sound for aquatic organisms is the most important source of information, since sound vibrations travel 5 times faster in water than in air. Cetaceans are able to detect sound waves in the range from 150 Hz to ultrasonic vibrations at 120-140 kHz. The hearing of toothed whales is most acute; in baleen whales it is worse compared to land mammals.
Cetaceans produce sound signals in the same frequencies that they perceive themselves. Since they do not have vocal cords, sounds are produced by vibration of the “sound lips” (toothed whales) or by the larynx and pharynx (baleen whales). The communication sounds produced by cetaceans are many and varied; there are special signals of feeding, anxiety, fear, mating, pain, etc. Some cetaceans from the suborder Odontoceti, like bats, are capable of directional echolocation. They have developed a special echolocation apparatus, consisting of a fat pad and a concave front surface of the skull, which act as a sound lens and reflector, concentrating the emitted ultrasonic signals and directing them to an object in the form of a sound beam.
Whale songs are sounds made by cetaceans to communicate. The word "songs" is used to emphasize the repetitive and melodic nature of sounds, reminiscent of human singing.
The use of sounds as the main channel of communication is due to the fact that in an aquatic environment visibility can be limited, and odors spread much more slowly than in air.
The most complex songs of humpback whales and some toothless whales are believed to be used in mating displays. Simpler signals are used all year round and perhaps serve for everyday communication and navigation. Toothed whales (including killer whales) use their sounds for echolocation.
Alexander Maly
Guru
(3735)
Whales on our planet have one of the best and highest quality hearing. It's safe to say that a whale's hearing is perfect. They capture sounds through the throat, and then through a special channel the sound reaches the inner ear.
Answer from 22 answers[guru]
Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: Why do whales hear each other at a distance of thousands of kilometers?
Answer from make christ[active]
They vibrate the nasal septum and the vibration travels much further than sound, and even more so under water
Answer from . : KZ: .[active]
so that people like you would ask why)))
Answer from MoBunny[guru]
All cetaceans lack vocal cords, so these animals
cannot make sounds in the usual way. But with the help of nasal vibrations
partitions they are capable of emitting about 30 different sound signals
and communicate with each other in such an unusual way.
Baleen whales have poor hearing, much worse than land mammals.
But toothed whales have very fine hearing, capable of detecting even
ultrasonic vibrations. Toothed whales navigate underwater
and find prey using echolocation - sending ultrasonic
signals and receiving the reflected pulse. There is a hypothesis according to which
toothed whales can communicate with each other from different ends of the ocean!
Among the many inhabitants of the seas, the giants – whales – invariably attract attention. Here are interesting facts about whales.
Scientists divide whales into two suborders: toothed and baleen.
In Odontoceti, representatives of the suborder of toothed whales, teeth are located either on both jaws, or on the lower jaw - in its front part. Some species of whales have non-functional teeth. Toothed whales differ from baleen whales in that they have an unpaired nostril.
The main food source of toothed whales is big fish deep waters and squids. Baleen whales, using the comb structure of their mouths, filter enormous volumes of water. Their “catch” is small organisms such as plankton and krill.
Male whales are much larger than females.
In order to periodically rise to the surface to breathe, the halves of the whales' brain sleep alternately.
Whales can survive without sleep for 100 days. They can live without food for about 8 months, and the hardiest individuals can live up to 10 months.
Talking about interesting facts about whales, we note that among all mammals, songs are performed exclusively by people and whales. Despite the lack of vocal cords, whales are capable of singing - sonorously and drawn-out. Their short arias last about 6 minutes; under favorable conditions, these animals can sing for 30-40 minutes.
Like other cetaceans, whales move through the water by moving their tails vertically up and down. Fish, unlike cetaceans, move their fins from side to side to swim.
Note that it is impossible to find two identical whale tails - they are as individual as human fingerprints.
The largest of the toothed whales is the sperm whale (Physeter catodon). The size of the males of these giants is up to 20 meters, and their females can be up to 15 meters in length. This whale remains at a depth of about 1.5 kilometers for a whole hour, and after surfacing does not feel any overload. Adult sperm whales eat up to a ton of food in one day. These are mainly cuttlefish and squid, caught with long jaws at the very bottom.
Tongue weight blue whale comparable to the weight of an elephant – it’s 4 tons. And its dimensions allow it to accommodate up to 50 people at a time.
No less impressive is the heart of the blue whale - it is the largest heart in the world. The size of a car and weighs between 600 and 700 kilograms.
The diameter of the whale's vessels is comparable to the diameter of an ordinary bucket. All 8 thousand liters of whale blood are pumped through them.
According to scientists, the ancestors of whales emerged from the waters of the ancient ocean 50 million years ago, but returned back in the process of evolution. Therefore, they were called secondary aquatic animals.
Baby whales feed on their mother's milk for the first six months of their lives. Moreover, such a cub drinks from 350 to 390 liters of milk daily. At the age of six months, the “baby” weighs up to 25 tons and reaches 15 meters in length.
The beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) has a white-yellowish coloration, but does not have a dorsal fin. The beluga whale uses its teeth to capture and hold food from fish and squid. Moreover, on the lower jaw she has 8 of them on each side, and 10 teeth on the upper. Females are smaller than males, weighing 900 kilograms and reaching an impressive length of up to 5 meters. Some specimens can weigh up to 1.5 tons.
Amazing video of how a whale can explode!
Majestic whales have captivated scientists since they were first discovered. Unfortunately, their uniqueness did not help them avoid barbaric extermination, and the number of these marine mammals declined alarmingly during the heyday of whaling. Fortunately, hunting for them is now prohibited, and one can hope that their population will recover over time.
Facts about whales
- Blue whales are the largest living creatures on Earth.
- The desire to see whale migration with one's own eyes is the main reason why tourists from all over the world flock to the remote Kingdom of Tonga every year. It is near the islands of the Tongan archipelago that the migration routes of these amazing animals lie.
- Contrary to popular belief, whales are not related to dolphins. But predatory killer whales are really considered their relatives (facts about killer whales).
- The weight of an adult blue whale can reach 120-150 tons, and its body length can be 30-33 meters. For comparison, an 8-story residential building usually does not exceed 27-28 meters in height.
- The ancestors of modern whales roamed the waters of the World Ocean 55 million years ago.
- Over the past few centuries, whales have been somewhat shredded, since the largest individuals were more likely to become victims of whalers than others, and size is an inherited trait.
- Whales never sleep completely, as they need to periodically rise to the surface for fresh air. Their sleep is more like half-asleep. And they don’t seem to need it too much, because they can go without sleep for 3 months. If necessary, of course.
- A thick layer of fat protects whales from the cold, so they are able to swim even in the coldest seas (facts about the seas).
- The tongue of an adult blue whale, which can weigh up to 3.5-4 tons, can accommodate up to 50 adults.
- Whales are also not afraid of starvation. They are able to go without food for 8-10 months.
- A newborn blue whale calf weighs about two tons.
- According to genetic studies, whales descend from land-dwelling artiodactyls. Yes, evolutionary processes are sometimes amazing, that’s a fact.
- When inhaling, a whale draws in about 2 thousand liters of air per second.
- The blood of these mammals is more saturated with oxygen than that of any other living creatures.
- A baby whale drinks 300-350 liters of mother's milk every day.
- The skin of blue whales can be tanned. This helps them minimize the effects of harmful ultraviolet radiation.
- People have actively hunted these animals for almost a thousand years.
- By exhaling carbon dioxide, bowhead whales create a fountain 5-6 meters high.
- These creatures inhale air using a special organ located at the back of the head.
- The diameter of whales' blood vessels reaches several tens of centimeters.
- The body of an adult blue whale contains about 8 thousand liters of blood.
- The size of a whale's heart is comparable to the size of a car.
- The lifespan of these creatures can exceed 100 years.
- Female blue whales give birth to one calf approximately every two years, and their pregnancy lasts about 11-12 months. Nobody knows for sure yet.
- Every day a whale consumes approximately 8 million calories of food.
- These animals do not have ears, but special organs located on the lower jaw help them hear sounds.
- They do not have such senses as taste and smell at all. And they see very poorly (facts about vision).
- Adult blue whales are not afraid of any other animals, but their calves sometimes become victims of killer whales.
- In all the museums of the world, only about 10 skeletons of blue whales are on display.
- Sperm whales, the largest predators on Earth, are also classified as whales. They reach a length of 20 meters, and their body weight reaches 50 tons.
Blue whales are perhaps one of the most majestic creatures on our planet. Their gigantic size and absolute peacefulness inspire respect. By the way, we don’t know much about these ocean inhabitants, but the information already available about them is quite capable of surprising us.
1. Even taking into account dinosaurs, the modern blue whale is the largest animal that has ever existed on Earth. The length of blue whales is 30-32 m, the maximum recorded weight is 173 tons. Compared to them, dinosaurs are more fragile and light creatures.
2. The tongue of a blue whale weighs as much as an African elephant, which is at least 2.7 tons. In addition, scientists examined the body of a dead whale, 23 m long, trapped in the ice, and found that its heart was the size of a golf cart. It is possible that a larger whale's heart will be the size of a car.
3. Blue whales can eat 500 kg of krill in one gulp, which is half a million calories. They mainly feed on shrimp, crustaceans, small fish and squid. Their mouths hold 90 tons of food and water, and an adult whale can eat 40 million calories worth of krill per day.
4. Blue whales feed seasonally. During migration for reproduction, they may not eat for six months. Blue whales primarily rely on Antarctic krill for their diet. During this season of increased feeding, they receive more energy than they expend, and thus create significant reserves of this energy, which they then use during the transition to warmer areas of the oceans in order to continue the whale race.
5. Blue whales are also huge when born. At birth, kittens weigh 2.5 tons, their length is 7 m, they gain 3-4 kg of weight per hour and grow at a rate of 4 cm per day! Female blue whales typically give birth every two or three years at the start of winter, and their gestation period lasts 10 to 12 months. Every day, baby whales drink from 380 to 570 liters of milk. After six months, the “babies” double in size, and by this time they are weaned.
6. Males hold the Guinness World Record for having the largest penis in the world, the length of which varies from 2.5 to 3 m, but the diameter is only 30-36 cm. The penis is usually hidden inside the body and comes out during mating. It is assumed that it is made by nature from tough fibrous tissue and uses its elasticity rather than blood flow for an erection. By the way, one whale ejaculation contains up to 20 liters of sperm.
7. Compared to other parts of the body, the brain of blue whales is very small and weighs only 6.92 kg, which is 0.007% of the body weight. However, scientists believe that cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are probably much smarter than we think. The difference between cetaceans and primates is that in primates the primary means of perception is visual and the primary means of communication are auditory, whereas in cetaceans both perception and communication are auditory. Their auditory abilities are so advanced that they can send and receive images through auditory communication. In fact, cetaceans send and receive 20 times more information than humans.
8. There were once about 239 thousand blue whales in Antarctica. With the invention of explosive harpoons in 1864, whales were at risk. Now there are from 10 to 25 thousand of them all over the world. In 1966, whaling activities were banned by the International Whaling Commission. However, whales also face other threats, such as ship strikes, which are often fatal, or global warming, which could affect their food source.
9. Blue whales are dedicated loners. Unlike other whales, they travel either by themselves or in pairs (mother and calf or two adult whales), but not in groups. Even when they travel in pairs, they stay several kilometers apart. If they gather in groups, it is solely for food purposes. In areas with high concentrations of food, up to 50 whales have been spotted simultaneously in a small area.
10. Blue whales are the loudest animals in the world. They can hear each other's signals at a distance of up to 1600 km. Being solitary by nature, blue whales have developed an exceptional communication system. Their signals to each other at low frequencies travel hundreds of kilometers in water. However, scientists believe that this distance has recently decreased to just 160 km due to shipping and noise pollution.
Whales are one of the most mysterious animals on Earth. They have been mentioned in various stories, from the Book of Job in the Bible to the film Star Trek IV The Journey Home, so one would assume that we already have a fairly extensive knowledge of these creatures that live in the oceans. However, there are 78 species of whales on the planet and we still continue to learn strange things about them. For example...
10. Beluga whales love music
On the one hand, we will never be able to say for sure whether beluga whales really love music. However, they react to it, express great curiosity and sometimes even join in the synchronized dance.
In 2013, a pair of performers outfitted a boat with an underwater sound system and sailed out to sea to play an underwater symphony for belugas. The whales were extremely interested and even began to sing along, showing their admiration for music and art that surpassed the emotions of the most famous creatures on Earth.
Any doubts that beluga whales enjoy music can probably be dispelled by watching the video above, which features a mariachi band playing for a captive beluga whale who appears to truly be enjoying the tunes.
9. Bowhead whales can live to be more than 200 years old
Photo: New Bedford Whaling Museum
In 2007, scientists studying a dead bowhead whale discovered something very strange lodged deep within its body. Upon closer inspection, the object found was a fragment of a weapon that corresponded to a patent filed in 1879. This suggests that the bowhead whale survived an attack by a whaling ship more than 100 years ago.
Scientists actually cannot agree on the maximum lifespan of bowhead whales. Most whales die between 60 and 90 years of age. However, amino acids in the eyes of bowhead whales reveal that the oldest whale ever discovered may have lived to be 211 years old. Some scientists believe that whales can live even longer than this age. The only thing we know for sure is that a person could not live that long, even without an ancient harpoon stuck in his back.
8. Female humpback whales have best friends. 
The Mingan Island Cetacean Study has been using photographic techniques to study humpback whales for the past 16 years. At that time, they began to realize that female humpback whales were capable of not only being friends with each other, but also reuniting every year. They remember their friends and even find them among other whales after swimming across the ocean. This was a rather shocking discovery, given that until this point scientists believed that humpback whales were generally unsociable with each other.
When a female humpback whale meets her mate, they simply swim together, eat and enjoy each other's company. These friendships appear to have a positive effect, based on the fact that female humpback whales who form friendships in this way are healthier and produce more offspring each year. However, no friendships have been observed between females and males (or even between males). For reasons no one can explain, only female whales like to be friends with each other.
7. The blue whale is the largest animal on Earth in its entire history 
Photo: National New Zealand Museum Te Papa Tongarewa
If most people had to guess which animal was the largest that ever existed, they would probably name some long-extinct creature, such as a mammoth or a dinosaur. However, the largest creature did not become extinct. It is a blue whale, whose body length can reach more than 30 meters and weighs 180,000 kilograms. The blue whale's heart can be the size of a small car and beats loudly enough to be detected from 3,000 meters away. Its mouth is large enough to hold 100 people, and its arteries are large enough to float a basketball through them.
And according to scientists, it is getting even bigger. Don't panic, the increased growth is not due to a toxic spill or gamma rays. It's all due to good old global warming. Thanks to warmer ocean currents, the number of krill in their habitat increases, and unlike other mammals, they grow in size instead of shrinking.
6. Some whales imitate human speech
Whales can make many sounds. One captive whale, a beluga named NOC, became so good at imitating human voices that researchers thought they were hearing two people talking in the distance. This went on for some time until the whale convinced a diver in his tank that someone was calling him to the surface.
At first, the general scientific community was skeptical. However, upon closer examination, it turned out that the sounds made by the NOC were undoubtedly unusual for a beluga whale and had the same acoustic patterns as human speech. NOC produced these sounds by unnaturally changing the pressure in its nasal passages and inflating the sac in its blowhole. Eventually, the NOC stopped making these sounds completely. Nobody knows why. Perhaps hormonal changes with age made it impossible to reproduce sounds, or maybe she was simply tired of doing it.
The most interesting thing is that the NOC was not the only one of its kind. For example, in the 1940s, there were reports of beluga whales that sounded like children. A whale named Lugosi, kept in captivity at the Vancouver Aquarium, was supposedly able to speak its name.
5. Sperm whales sleep standing up
Until recently, it was thought that all whales slept in a similar way to dolphins, with one half of their brain alternately resting while the other remained active, allowing them to keep an eye out for potential dangers. However, in 2013, a team of scientists following sperm whales wearing tracking devices discovered something quite astonishing.
They discovered a whole pod of whales off the coast of Chile. The whales' bodies were in a completely vertical position relative to the surface of the water and their heads simply rose and fell on the surface. Scientists were able to get right into the center of the school and even nudge one of the whales. At this moment, all the whales came to life and swam away. They were just sleeping.
This means that sperm whales sleep in one of the strangest ways known in the animal kingdom. Presumably they dive down and sleep for periods of time, which can last up to 12 minutes, and then slowly drift towards the surface, head first. Additionally, for some reason that remains unknown, they only sleep between 6:00 pm and midnight.
4. Whales feed by swallowing water, the weight of which corresponds to the weight of their bodies
Scientists have discovered that whales have a mysterious organ that is not found in any other known animal on Earth. This organ, which is the size of a grapefruit, is found in the chins of baleen whales. On this moment no one knows exactly why they need this organ. However, it is believed to allow the whales to "lunge feed".
Lunge feeding occurs when whales rush forward towards their prey (plankton or fish, depending on the species) and completely engulf the schools, swallowing them along with the water. This means swallowing huge amounts of water during lunge feeding. Whales can actually absorb a volume of water equal to their body weight.
The whales then filter the food from the water using "whiskers" in their throats. The newly discovered organ helps whales control vast amounts of water with precise movements that help filter the water that ends up in their stomachs as a result of this feeding method.
3. Moby Dick really existed
Photo: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Nowadays, most people would consider the idea of a vindictive whale seeking revenge on the whalers to be ridiculous science fiction. However, Herman Melville based his idea of Moby Dick on real events and a real whale named Mocha Dick. The event Melville read about occurred in 1820 when Mocha Dick attacked and sank an English ship. The crew landed on a deserted island, where they had to resort to cannibalism.
Mocha Dick's descriptions of that era largely coincide with Melville's descriptions. He was a white albino whose emission of stream through his blowhole sounded like a continuous roar. However, reports from the time describe him as even more terrifying than his fictional namesake. He was covered in barnacles and was usually seen still hauling harpoons and ropes from previous encounters with whalers that had failed to kill him.
2. Whale songs spread like pop music
Scientists studying humpback whale songs in 2011 discovered something very strange. The rise and fall of an individual whale's song is very similar to the rhythm in pop songs.
In any area shared by whales, everyone sings the same song. Over time, the song will change, and if the new song is rhythmic enough, it will spread to other whale populations. When a new whale song appears, it is sometimes a sort of remix of the previous song. And this is not just a gross simplification. A University of Queensland researcher who analyzed this strange trend described it as "like an old Beatles song mixed with a U2 song."
Other times, the new song may be completely original. The most popular songs act like music charts, gaining popularity as more whales sing them and then travel east to other whale populations.
1. Whales accept other animals and objects 
Photo: Alexander D M Wilson/Aquatic Mammals
Not all whales are as rugged as Piss Dick. Most of them tend to behave quite affectionately, even towards other species.
For example, in 2011, a pod of sperm whales adopted a bottlenose dolphin born with a deformed, S-shaped spine. A pod of dolphins supposedly rejected him because of his deformity. Logically, it makes sense that slow-swimming whales would be very attractive to such a sociable animal as the dolphin. However, experts remain puzzled as to why the whales so readily accepted him as a member of the group.
In similar but sadder cases, female beluga whales sometimes mistake objects for foster babies. Female beluga whales carry boards, other small objects, and even entire reindeer skeletons on their heads or backs, and treat them like calves.
+ Osedax (Zombie Worms)
Photo: Natural History Museum
Whales have the largest bones on the planet. If no one got rid of them, the seabed would be forever cluttered with whale bones. Luckily, there's a creature that does the job: Osedax.
Osedax's scientific name is Osedax mucofloris, which literally translates to "bone-eating snot flower." It's an apt name: Osedax burrow into whale bones and develop a root system, the few parts of the worm's body that remain on the surface covered in mucus that looks like snot.
