The Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera edeni) is a species
commonly documented along the southeast
coast of Brazil, but nothing is known about their
vocalizations in this area. Underwater recordings
were gathered in an opportunistic manner
when the species was present along the coast of
the Rio de Janeiro State. A total of 143 min of
recordings was analyzed, and five different call
types were found. The most abundant call type
consisted of a series of discrete pulses that was
detected during the observation of a mother-calf
pair. Other types of calls were recorded from solitary
whales, including a flat tone with harmonics,
a downswept tone, and two types of calls with
multiple components. All recorded calls were
short (< 2 s), with the exception of the series of
pulses (> 7 s), with frequency ranges below 1 kHz.
The call composed of a series of discrete pulses is
likely linked to calf-adult interactions given that
this call was previously reported in the presence
of calves in the Gulf of California. This is the first
description of the Bryde’s whale vocal repertoire
in the South Atlantic. The vocalizations described
herein present generally identifiable characteristics
of the species’ calls; however, some variations
may be specific to this area.