Text 4.

Whales

 

«The whale has no voice", wrote Melville in Moby Dick 'but then again what has the whale to say? Seldom have I known any profound being that had anything to say to this world, unless to stammer out something.' Whales may not sing for their suppers, but some of them certainly do sing. Melville failed to hear them because they sing underwater. Others have heard them without realising it. If whales sing near a wooden-bottomed boat, sailors in their may hear an eerie melodious wail from they know not where. Hence, perhaps, the many sea-tales of lullabies sung by drowned colleagues.

Why do they sing? First, we should say that there are two sorts of whales: the toothed whales - such as sperm, killer and pilot whales - who are close relatives of the dolphin; and the toothless 'baleen' whales - such as the humpback, right and minke. The toothed whales usually live in stable and organised groups: a gang of killer whales may stay together for years on end. Such creatures make sounds, but have not been known to sing.

Many dolphins produce 'signature' whistles - each one has a different call-sign from his neighbors. These seem to function as names: a dolphin will often produce his neighbor's whistle when nearby. Similarly, each sperm whale produces a distinctive series of clicks - known as his coda - arid will sometimes mimic a nearby whale's coda. Killer whales have identifiable dialects that are specific to each family. It is the baleen whales, especially the humpbacks, who break into song. At any one time, all the singing whales in a population sing the same song. It gradually changes over time and each whale learns and copies the new variations. This is wonderful, because the songs, which can last up to thirty minutes, are highly complex. It is only the males who sing, and they do so chiefly during the breeding season. The songs seem - like many bird songs - to be a sort of display that males use in competing with each other for females.

Singing humpbacks have a wide vocal range: the notes can vary from a high-pitched whistle to a reverberating fog-horn. Play back a recorded humpback song at fourteen times the correct speed and it sounds like a nightingale. But birdsong is shorter - and more significantly - not so structured as whale song. Whale song can be divided into regularly repeating phrases, which in turn are organised into themes that always occur in the same sequence. Unlike birds, whales appear to have studied some of the rules of classical composition.

By analysing these themes and phrases, two scientists have made conclusions about whale culture that would have struck Melville. Whales seem to use structure like rhyme in poetry. And, like people, they can put in the rhymes to help them remember their songs. The two scientists, Miss Linda Guinee of the Long Term Research Institute in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and Mrs Katharine Payne of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, analysed 460 whale songs from the North Pacific and 88 from the North Atlantic. From their recordings they produced audio spectrograms, converting sounds into strings of squiggles which can be classified by shape.

Having a catalogue of whale songs helps marine biologists to track whale populations on their odysseys by showing where each singer comes from. It also lets them study the songs as they evolve. Since whales hear their songs, such songs are an example of culture; and the way they change is an example of cultural evolution.

It turns out that whales make much use of phrases with the same endings - i.e. rhymes. Miss Guinee and Mrs Payne found that songs with many differing themes were much more likely to contain plenty of rhymes. They found that rhymes were correlated not with the length of a song but with the amount of different material to be remembered. Simple songs did not contain any rhyming passages. The rhyming pattern then, could be a way to help the whale remember what comes next in a complicated song. A rhyming pattern helps people to learn and remember poetry by limiting the number of possible words in a given position. 'If you know that every third and fourth line of a stanza in a given poem rhyme, and that the third line of a stanza ends with 'love', you know that the next line might end with 'dove' but cannot end with 'sparrow'. Advertising jingles often use rhyme in the justified hope that people will remember the names of products. You do not have to know the meaning of a word or sign in order for rhyme to help you recall it (think of children's nonsense rhymes). Poets use rhyme for all sorts of reasons: because they are attractive, musical, create a pleasing rhythm, or are merely ingenious or funny.

Miss Guinee and Mrs Payne realise that their evidence if inconclusive, because they cannot ask the whales what they are up to. Some will doubt their conclusion because it makes whales seem implausibly human. Maybe they have not made whales 'human' enough. Perhaps the rhyming sirens of the deep are simply trying to please themselves and their audience.

 

Vocabulary.

whale - кит

seldom - редко

profound - мудрый, дальновидный

being - существо, человек

unless - если не

stammer out - произносить с запинкой

certainly - конечно

fail - не удаваться

realise - понимать, осознавать

bottom - дно

eerie - жуткий, мрачный

wail - выть, вопить

hence - здесь: отсюда

sea-tale - морские истории

lullaby - колыбельная (песня)

drown - тонуть

toothed - зубатый

close relative - близкий родственник

toothless - беззубый

baleen - китовый ус

stable - стабильный

gang - здесь: косяк (группа)

creature - существо

signature - подпись

whistle - свистеть

distinctive - отчетливый

mimic - подражать

click - щелчок

identifiable - различимый

gradually - постепенно

over time - со временем

male - мужская особь

chiefly - в основном

breeding - здесь: размножение

compete - состязаться

female - женская особь

range - диапазон

high-pitch - высокий (о голосе)

reverberate - отражаться, отдаваться (о звуке)

horn - рожок

nightingale - соловей

significantly - значительно

in turn - в свою очередь

occur - происходить, случаться

sequence - последовательность

conclusion - заключение

long-term - долгосрочный

convert - превращать

string - ряд, цепочка

squiggle - здесь: звук, мелодия

by shape - по размеру

marine - морской

track - отслеживать

evolve - эволюционировать, развиваться

likely - по всей вероятности

plenty - множество

correlate - соотносить(ся)

amount - количество

contain - содержать

pattern - образец

complicated - сложный

limit - ограничивать

stanza - строфа

dove - голубь

sparrow - воробей

jingles - мн.ч. созвучия

justified - оправданный

recall - вспоминать

nonsense - чепуха

attractive - привлекательный

create - создавать

merely - просто

ingenious - остроумный

evidence - доказатеьство, свидетельство

conclusive - заключительный, решающий

doubt - сомневаться

implausibly - невероятный, неправдоподобный

audience - аудитория

 

Comprehension Check.

Answer the following questions:

1. Who said that whales have no voice?

2. What is the author's opinion concerning this?

3. What kind of sounds do sperm whales produce?

4. Whay can you say about a song sang by one population of whales?

5. Who is considered to be able to sing - males or females?

6. What happens if to play back a recorded hampback song?

7. How do whales learn to sing?

8. What are the results of the scientific research done by Linda Guinee and

Katharine Payne?

 

Topics to Dicsuss.

1. Whales and singing.

2. Types of "songs".

3. The results of the two scientiscts' research.