For years a mysterious whale with a unique song was tracked in the Pacific Ocean. Is it still out there? And is it really alone?
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By Chris Baraniuk
15 April 2015
A blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) at the surface (Credit: Wildlife GmbH/Alamy)
A blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) at the surface (Credit: Wildlife GmbH/Alamy)
It's been nicknamed "the loneliest whale in the world". It sings a song like no other. Some say it wanders alone across the Pacific Ocean, crying out for companionship that never comes.
No-one knows for sure whether the whale is male or female, what species it is, or even if it still lives. The last in the original series of recordings was made in 2004.
It's one of the animal kingdom's great mysteries. But we might have been thinking about it the wrong way.
Maybe its unusual song doesn't isolate it after all. Perhaps instead it sings this way to ensure it can be better heard by its companions, or to impress members of the opposite sex. One way or another, this unusual whale can tell us a lot about whales and their songs.