Researchers from New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research believe they have heard the voices of two previously unrecorded species of whales. A study in the The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America describes two distinct beaked whale echolocation signals recorded in the Cook Strait region using passive acoustic technology.
"These signals differ from previously described Ziphiid species clicks. A description of the time-frequency characteristics of the two signals is provided. Understanding the characteristics of these signals is necessary to correctly identify species from their echolocation signals and enables future monitoring of beaked whales using passive acoustics techniques."
"These signals differ from previously described Ziphiid species clicks. A description of the time-frequency characteristics of the two signals is provided. Understanding the characteristics of these signals is necessary to correctly identify species from their echolocation signals and enables future monitoring of beaked whales using passive acoustics techniques."
The New Zealand Herald reports there were about 22 species of beaked whales globally, of which about 13 had been found in New Zealand, but very little is known about them. Sightings are rare because they are deep-diving animals that can spend more than an hour on a single dive and surface for a very short time.
"Most information about their presence in New Zealand waters has come from people reporting whale strandings but it is very limited," said Niwa marine mammal expert Dr Giacomo Giorli, who carried out the work with colleague Dr Kim Goetz and JASCO Applied Sciences experts. "We really know very little about their behaviour."
What was known is that beaked whales, like all toothed whales, such as dolphins, sperm and killer whales, used echolocation, emitting sounds and listening to the echoes, to locate prey in the dark deep-sea environment.
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