US EditionSeals Sing 'Otherworldly' Songs Structured Like Nursery Rhymes
EASTERN ANTARCTICA, JUL 31 – Male leopard seals perform unique long songs with five notes to attract females and deter rivals, singing up to 13 hours during the spring breeding season, researchers said.
- UNSW Sydney researchers published a study today showing male leopard seals in Antarctica sing underwater songs structured like human nursery rhymes.
- This singing behavior occurs during the breeding season when males dive for two-minute cycles, performing solos for up to 13 hours daily to communicate across vast icy waters.
- The study found all seals use the same set of five notes arranged uniquely to create personal sonic signatures, with song patterns exhibiting predictability similar to nursery rhymes.
- Lead author Lucinda Chambers described the song patterns as conveying a combined message of identity and physical prowess, as if the singer is proudly demonstrating their size and strength through the duration and volume of their calls.
- Researchers hope to revisit Antarctica using new tools to determine if leopard seal songs evolve over generations, aiming to improve understanding of animal communication and conservation efforts.
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Antarctica’s Got Talent: leopard seal songs
Leopard seal (Hydrurga_leptonyx). Credit: Andrew Shiva / Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 4.0 Leopard seals have massive heads, powerful jaws and distinctive spotted coats, earning them a fierce reputation as one of the top predators stalking the Antarctic. Did you know they’re also incredibly talented singers? A new study published in Scientific Reports shows these “songbirds of the Southern Ocean” belt out tunes which share remarkable structural similarit…
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Seals sing 'otherworldly' songs structured like nursery rhymes
When male leopard seals dive down into icy Antarctic waters, they sing songs structured like nursery rhymes in performances that can last up to 13 hours, scientists said Thursday.
Rockabye baby: the ‘love songs’ of lonely leopard seals resemble human nursery rhymes
CassandraSm/ShutterstockLate in the evening, the Antarctic sky flushes pink. The male leopard seal wakes and slips from the ice into the water. There, he’ll spend the night singing underwater amongst the floating ice floes. For the next two months he sings every night. He will sing so loudly, the ice around him vibrates. Each song is a sequence of trills and hoots, performed in a particular pattern. In a world first, we analysed leopard seal son…
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