Beluga whales http://www.care2.com/causes/death-of-baby-beluga-at-the-georgia-aquarium-fuels-calls-to-end-captivity.html have captured our childhood hearts and imaginations through a very popular nursery rhyme. Anyone remember the line "See the water squirting out of your spout" from the Baby Beluga song? Well, it turns out that beluga whales might squirt water out for a reason, and researchers think they know why.
Bursting the Beluga's Bubble
As reported in Phys.org, http://phys.org/news/2015-12-reveals-belugas-based-mood.html a new study led by Michael Noonan, PhD, a professor of animal behavior at Canisius College, might have burst the mystery of the beluga whale's bubble: "why beluga whales blow bubbles underwater and how their different …show more content…
Unlike other whales, belugas have pretty good vision and they can also turn their heads. http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/html/beluga_whale.html Belugas also have some of the most expressive faces in the sea, "By altering the shape of its forehead and lips a Beluga can make a variety of facial expressions. It may appear to smile, frown or whistle," explains Whales on the Net. http://www.whales.org.au/discover/beluga/belugag.html
While facial expressions facilitate visual communication, they also help belugas produce sounds -- the whales' main form of communication. Even though belugas talk through their noses that doesn't stop them from being the "canaries of the sea." http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150120-mystery-squeaks-of-beluga-whales Belugas "see" the world in sound (also known as echolocation), and they make plenty of sounds, too: "Beluga calls variously resemble a cork being prized from a bottle or a creaking door, along with sounds described as clicks, squeaks, chirps, bleats, moans, groans, and whistles," reports BBC.
Bursting the Beluga's Bubble
As reported in Phys.org, http://phys.org/news/2015-12-reveals-belugas-based-mood.html a new study led by Michael Noonan, PhD, a professor of animal behavior at Canisius College, might have burst the mystery of the beluga whale's bubble: "why beluga whales blow bubbles underwater and how their different …show more content…
Unlike other whales, belugas have pretty good vision and they can also turn their heads. http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/html/beluga_whale.html Belugas also have some of the most expressive faces in the sea, "By altering the shape of its forehead and lips a Beluga can make a variety of facial expressions. It may appear to smile, frown or whistle," explains Whales on the Net. http://www.whales.org.au/discover/beluga/belugag.html
While facial expressions facilitate visual communication, they also help belugas produce sounds -- the whales' main form of communication. Even though belugas talk through their noses that doesn't stop them from being the "canaries of the sea." http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150120-mystery-squeaks-of-beluga-whales Belugas "see" the world in sound (also known as echolocation), and they make plenty of sounds, too: "Beluga calls variously resemble a cork being prized from a bottle or a creaking door, along with sounds described as clicks, squeaks, chirps, bleats, moans, groans, and whistles," reports BBC.