Often mothers and calves are accompanied by a third whale called an escort. The escort whale, assumed to be a sexually active male, remains with the mother and calf for less than a day, with most associations lasting a few hours. Males and females do not form long-term pair bonds. Competition for the female involves a variety of intensely aggressive behaviors that may occasionally escalate and result in death. Back to Top Communication and Song Humpback whales produce a wide array of sounds, including the highest and lowest frequencies humans can hear.
Discrete notes occur in patterned sequences that make up a phrase.
Usually uniform in duration, phrases may contain repeated sounds. A consecutive group of phrases constitutes a theme. Although a given theme may vary in the number of phrases it contains, its sequence is always the same. Similarly, the sequence in which themes occur is always the same, although some themes may be left out. A predictable series of themes forms a song.