The Lonliest Whale In The World

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In 2004, The New York Times wrote an article about the loneliest whale in the world. Scientists have been tracking her since 1992 and they discovered the problem:

She isn’t like any other baleen whale. Unlike all other whales, she doesn’t have friends. She doesn’t have a family. She doesn’t belong to any tribe, pack or gang. She doesn’t have a lover. She never had one. Her songs come in groups of two to six calls, lasting for five to six seconds each. But her voice is unlike any other baleen whale. It is unique—while the rest of her kind communicate between 12 and 25hz, she sings at 52hz. You see, that’s precisely the problem. No other whales can hear her. Every one of her desperate calls to communicate remains unanswered. Each cry ignored. And, with every lonely song, she becomes sadder and more frustrated, her notes going deeper in despair as the years go by.

“So lonely”

On the tiny Galapagos island of Pinta there exists an animal that is unlike any other in the world, and for nearly a hundred years it has lived there in solitude and despair. It’s name is Lonesome George, and it is: The Loneliest Tortoise in the World.

Lonesome George, or ‘Solitario Jorge’ is considered to be the rarest creature in the world. He is the last living Pinta Island tortoise on earth, and after he dies his species will go the way of the sabretooth tiger, the wooly mammoth and the leprechaun – fading forever into the history books.

I used to listen to and record some of these whale noises years ago during a tour on a Navy ship.

It was very rare to be able to hear them because the Sonar would normally keep them away most of the time.

They make some pretty bizarre sounds.

A couple of videos about these whales:

Well that just broke my heart.
Doesn't this whale at least see other whales????

Is it just me, or don't animals seem to becoming more and more human? Or, perhaps it's just our understanding of them. Plants can sing (look up plant music,) bears have a sense of humor and whales can be oddball loners like some of us. We're really not alone after all.

Originally posted by Night Star
Well that just broke my heart.

Doesn't this whale at least see other whales????

Who are we to presume to know how this whale feels? This might be the most liberated, the most courageous, the most relevant, the most happy whale of them all and when it eventually dies a smal part of us all might die along with it.

reply to post by Shema


The fact that she's crying out indicates a desire to communicate. Language is universal for this purpose (communication.)

That has to be one of the saddest things I have ever read.

And it is only natural that she would want to mate and have babies. Of course she is calling out trying to communicate. Poor thing.

How old is she maybe we can go for a swim.
2e nd

A northern Pacific gray whale was spotted off the Israeli town of Herzliya half way around the world from where they are normally found.,
news.discovery.com...

I served on a USCGC, in the Pacific Ocean. Use to watch dolphins and porpoises ride the bow wave. I'd whistle down at them, and except for a higher-frequency their replies would exactly mimic my signal -- as if they wanted to talk.

Although whales, dolphins, and porpoises naturally exist in social groups -- as a loner, I believe these creatures if necessary are capable of adapting to a lone existence, without experiencing the emotion of sorrow.

Originally posted by Night Star

Doesn't this whale at least see other whales????

Maybe she does, but because the other whales can`t hear her she gets ignored. A bit like if your at a party in a restaurant or with friends at a bar you wouldn`t even notice someone walking past you on their own, saying nothing to anybody and looking miserable a reckon.

Such a shame.

Elephants can hear sounds as low as 16 hz, but bats only down to 2,000 hz.

baleen whales reacted primarily to sounds at low frequencies in the 20 Hz to 500 Hz range. While this is their most sensitive hearing range, the hearing bandwidth for baleen whales is believed to range from 5 Hz to above 20 kHz.

Hearing is directly related to the distance between the ears.



. [color=gold] This whale has the same problem
as most women on earth.



The human female, on average, has a slightly smaller diameter between their
ears than the male of the species. So when they use higher pitched tones
and sighs, their male counterparts (quite literally) can't hear them.

If I want to be understood by a male,
I put some base in my voice.


If I am communicating with a small child or pet,
I use high pitched sounds.












"the husky voiced" actress.


All these generations latter,
and some of you broads still don't understand why some actresses became stars.




It's because we could actually hear their tonal clues.


Mike

The median range of most sensitive hearing is 5x the miniumum and the max/5.

birds

canary, Hearing 250 - 8,000 hz
parakeet, Hearing 200 - 8,500 hz
cockatiel, Hearing 250 - 8,000 hz
chicken, Hearing 125 - 2,000 hz
snowy owl, Hearing 200 - 12,000 hz
eurasian scops owl, Hearing 200 - 12,000 hz
spectacled owl, Hearing 200 - 12,000 hz

cats

Lion, Hearing 45 - 64,000 hz
lynx, Hearing 100 - 60,000 hz
house cat, felis domesticus, Hearing 100 - 60,000 hz

dogs hearing 67 - 45,000 hz.

Elephants Hearing 3 - 12,000 hz. Can comunicate using sounds 14 - 35 hz, this is below human hearing.

fish and dolphin

porpoise, Hearing 75 - 150,000 hz
dolphin, Hearing 75 - 150,000 hz.
whale, Hearing 1,000 - 123,000 hz
. [color=gold] whale, baleen, Mysticeti Balaenidae, Hearing 5 - 20,000 hz
sea lion, Hearing 100 - 40,000 hz
goldfish, Hearing 20 - 3,000 hz
skipjack tuna, Hearing 50 - 1,100 hz
catfish, pelteobagrus nudiceps, Hearing 50 - 4,000 hz.

frog has an eardrum on the ouside behind the eye

bullfrog 26, Hearing 100 - 3,000 hz
tree frog 26, Hearing 50 - 4,000 hz

guinea pig, Hearing 54 - 50,000 hz

hedgehog, Hearing 250 -45,000 hz

horses, Hearing 55 - 33,500 hz

humans, Homo Sapiens, Hearing 64 - 23,000 hz.

Mice hearing 1,000 - 91,000 hz

oxen

cow, Hearing 23 -35,000 hz
sheep, ovis aries, Hearing 100 - 30,000
deer, barking, muntiacus muntjak, Hearing 500 - 12,000 hz

rabbit, 360 -42,000 hz.

raccon, 100 -40,000 hz

rats, hearing 200 - 76,000 hz

turtle, snapping, Hearing 80 - 600 hz



My friends are frequently amazed when I can call their cat,
and the cat responds.


Mike

The modern master of the deep voice.

Only Judi Dench could have bossed Bond around.


Mike

That poor creature. This is not the way I wanted to start my Monday morning off. Now I am sad and I will think of that whale all day long.

Well now there is something to help deepen my Summer melancholia the loneliest whale...

So I will need to just buck up little camper it could be worse I could be communicating and nobody could hear me! Oh wait that is like being at home...LOL

Originally posted by Shema

Originally posted by Night Star
Well that just broke my heart.

Doesn't this whale at least see other whales????

Who are we to presume to know how this whale feels? This might be the most liberated, the most courageous, the most relevant, the most happy whale of them all and when it eventually dies a smal part of us all might die along with it.

Isolation to that degree is incredibly difficult to live with. As LoneCloudHopper2 pointed out, communication is our primary method of connecting to each other, and life, itself......

The story breaks my heart, as well.