The ocean is an immense “open space” where the slightest sound propagates thousands of kilometers.
We are far from the "world of silence" celebrated by Commander Cousteau... In this sonic, not to say noisy, universe, baleen whales, also called mysticetes - a micro-order which brings together rorquals, like the blue whale or humpback - have a preponderant role.
Their low-frequency vocalizations allow them to communicate over long distances, but also to find their way and hunt plankton in a world deprived of light.
Long attributed to ghosts, mermaids and other mythical creatures by sailors, these astonishing songs are the subject of a new study published in the journal
Nature
.
Coen Elemans, from the biology department at the University of Southern Denmark, explores how the anatomy of these gigantic animals allows them to produce these sounds underwater, without breathing or drowning.
It is very important to understand the acoustic functioning of marine mammals, to correctly determine the impact of noise pollution on their behavior.
Olivier Adam, bioacoustician at the Paris-Saclay Institute of Neurosciences
To do this, his team examined the larynxes of…
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