Why do humpback whales sing?
Only lone males do the singing. Each humpback whale has his own song, which changes from one year to the next. No one knows for certain what the songs mean, but it is guessed that they may be attracting mates or maintaining territorial distances by advertising themselves to other males. We don’t hear humpbacks singing in Monterey Bay. The humpback whales we see here belong to the north Pacific population, which do their singing when they’re wintering near Mexico or Central America. (An occasional Monterey Bay humpback may go to Hawaii in the winter, but scientists think this is infrequent.
Only lone males do the singing. Each humpback whale has his own song, which changes from one year to the next. No one knows for certain what the songs mean, but it is guessed that they may be attracting mates or maintaining territorial distances by advertising themselves to other males. We don’t hear humpbacks singing in Monterey Bay. The humpback whales we see here belong to the north Pacific population, which do their singing when they’re wintering near Mexico or Central America.
