Bowhead whales are mysterious, Arctic-dwelling creatures. Scientists believe they can live for over two centuries, and even so, they largely avoid getting cancer. In the 1990s, an old stone spearhead — a weapon that hadn’t been used since the 1800’s — was found embedded in a bowhead whale’s blubber. That whale had apparently survived a hunter’s attack, over a century earlier.
Now, marine researchers say they’ve recorded bowheads singing an unprecedented number of songs. The marine mammals seem to be altering their songs each year, similar to how a jazz musician is constantly improvising.
“If humpback whale song is like classical music, bowheads are jazz,” Kate Stafford, an oceanographer at the University of Washington, said in a press release. Read more…