SIROVIC: In addition to being the largest animal that has ever lived, they're also, as we're learning, an important link in the carbon cycle on the planet because they eat a lot of food. SHAPIRO: Ana Sirovic was not part of the research team, but she says there are lots of good reasons scientists want to understand blue whales. SIROVIC: It's actually been challenging sometimes to see those patterns because they're often quite subtle. OESTREICH: It gives us the opportunity to learn a little bit about how flexible or adaptable these animals really are because they're inhabiting an ecosystem that's changing rapidly. MOSLEY: Learning about this night to day song-switching could help scientists understand how and when whales decide to leave their feeding grounds, which Oestreich says is key to understanding their survival amid climate change. So they're relying on all of the food and energy that they obtained during this short feeding season to fuel their migration, their reproduction, their rearing of young. OESTREICH: The timing of that switch from intensive feeding to southward migration is actually a really critical decision in the survival of these animals. They eat krill in the north, then head to breeding grounds off the coast of Mexico and Central America. MOSLEY: Blue whales can swim a thousand miles or more. He's lead author of a paper out today in the journal Current Biology. SHAPIRO: That's William Oestreich of Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, Calif. WILLIAM OESTREICH: When these animals started migrating south along the California coast, the time of day that they were producing their song switched to the daytime. Now, after analyzing five years of underwater recordings, scientists have observed a flip-flop. Normally, the giant creatures fill their huge mouths with tiny krill during the day and sing at night. SHAPIRO: This is the song of a blue whale sped up five times to make it easier for humans to hear.Īnd some news out today tells us when blue whales off the coast of California switch from eating to singing. Ana Sirovic of Texas A&M University has been studying blue whales for 20 years.ĪNA SIROVIC: We have found that they tend to be quite polite and not sing while they're eating. The world's largest animal, it turns out, has good table manners.
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