Scientists at work: New recordings of ultrasonic seal calls hint at sonar-like abilities yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
New Recordings of Ultrasonic Seal Calls Hint at Sonar-like Abilities
Weddell seals swim in challenging conditions. (Photo: McMurdo Oceanographic Observatory, CC BY-ND)
I’m sitting on the edge of a hole drilled through 15 feet of Antarctic sea ice, about to descend into the frigid ocean of the southernmost dive site in the world. I wear nearly 100 pounds of gear – a drysuit and gloves, multiple layers of insulation, scuba tank and regulators, lights, equipment, fins and over 40 pounds of lead to counteract all that added buoyancy.
I do a final check with my dive buddies: Air? Hoses? Weights? Then, one by one, we put in our mouthpieces, plop into the hole and sink out of sight into the dark.
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Antarctica is often perceived as nothing more than a lifeless barren of cold. A frozen dessert. However, not many are aware of the booming and flourishing population of Weddel seals that dominated the waters of the frozen south. There, they create a soundscape that a lot of creatures, especially humans, are unaware of.
(Photo : Vassil Tzvetano on Wikimedia Commons)
These pinnipeds typically emit high-pitched pings that sound like laser guns in a science-fiction movie. But that is not their entire repertoire. Research reveals that a significant portion of their calls is at ultrasonic frequencies, high pitches well beyond the 20-kilohertz limit of most human hearing.
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Weddell seals use a breathing hole in the frozen surface of the Ross Sea. Credit: Alasdair Turner
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Above the frozen ocean, Antarctica can be eerily quiet. Gusts of wind are often all one hears. Below, though, the Southern Ocean is a living soundscape dominated by Weddell seals. These pinnipeds typically emit high-pitched pings that sound like laser guns in a science-fiction movie. But that is not their entire repertoire. Research now reveals that a significant portion of their calls are at ultrasonic frequencies, high pitches well beyond the 20-kilohertz limit of most human hearing.
University of Oregon marine biologist Paul Cziko installed a livestreaming audio and video system at Antarctica’s McMurdo Station in 2017, allowing scientists to listen in on the massive mammals’ underwater calls. Data from the setup yielded surprising results: The seals sometimes vocalized at extremely high, ultrasonic frequencies of more than 200 kilohertz, Cziko and his coll