I chose it because I thought it was something positive for a change in the news, and I am interested in animals so thought it would be a fun subject to research. It is about a whale named Noc, who communicated with divers when they were under, apparently telling the divers to get out of the water. It is quite extraordinary that a whale has been found to communicate with humans, so I am going to look at this case, and other cases where animals have been found to communicate.
Here is a video of the audio that the whale produced:
Facts and Figures on Whales
I am going to research some facts and figures on whales, to get some background knowledge on the animals and have a clearer idea about their intelligence, population and various other facts.
This is an infographic showing each species of whale, and their population in the world. Noc was a Beluga whale, and there are only 100,000 in those in the world. I thought that was a very low number, but after researching it more it seems their conservation status is mixed, with Wikipedia saying their status is Near Threatened, but a section which says:
'the subpopulation from the Cook Inlet in Alaska is considered Critically Endangered and is under the protection of the United States' Endangered Species Act.[2][5] Of seven Canadian beluga populations, the two inhabiting eastern Hudson Bay and Ungava Bay are listed as endangered.'
As the diagram of its size compared to the bus shows, they are a small species, and one of the smallest types of whales.
This article also says 'They are social animals and very vocal communicators that employ a diversified language of clicks, whistles, and clangs. Belugas can also mimic a variety of other sounds.' which confirms furthermore that it could have been possible for them to make human like sounds, as it says they can 'mimic a variety of other sounds'. This is important to me because when I first read the article of Noc talking I thought it would only apply to one case or be very exaggerated, but there are lots of evidence to suggest otherwise.
If you click here you can be directed to the full article.
I was browsing through some more articles about Beluga whales, and came across this 'Beluga whales are very vocal: their chirps, squeaks and clicks are so distinctive they're nicknamed 'sea canaries'.' I found this on the BBC website, and after I have seen that they communicate a few times on different websites, I am now going to look at vocal communication in animals.
Communication
I am now going to look at communication between other animals that I have found through the internet. I first looked at this article about Noc the whale, and it said:
"While birds have been known to mimic human speech, it's not a common characteristic among mammals - the few exceptions apparently including Noc and, a decade earlier, a New England harbour seal named Hoover, who reportedly spoke with a Maine accent.
Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/editorial/a-whale-of-a-tale#ixzz2AIk0HRiL
Follow us: @TheNationalUAE on Twitter | thenational.ae on Facebook"
This section of the article interested me as it said that a seal named Hoover has also been noted to talk, and with an accent! I decided to research this further, to see why another sea animal has allegedly spoken as well.
I then went on a website that spoke about Hoover the seal, and found a section on different animals and how they communicate vocally.
"Vocal learning - the ability to imitate complex vocalizations - is a relatively rare ability in the animal kingdom. Humans obviously are excellent vocal learners, and this ability is central to both singing and speech. Surprisingly, vocal learning of complex sounds (like speech or songs) has not been found in ANY other nonhuman primate.
However, vocal learning is common among birds, and at least three major bird groups have evolved vocal learning, probably independently: the songbirds (oscine passerines), parrots, and hummingbirds. This has led to songbirds becoming the major group in which the genetic and neural basis for vocal learning is studied. Unfortunately, however, birds have both a very different brain from that of mammals, and a completely novel vocal production system (called the syrinx). Thus, there may be important differences between vocal learning mechanisms in humans and birds.
Another large group of vocal learners are the cetaceans: whales and dolphins. Again, unfortunately the mechanism dolphins and other toothed whales use to make sounds is evolutionarily novel, and unrelated to the human vocal tract. Cetacean brains are also rather peculiar, with a very thin cerebral cortex. Thus, the similarities between cetacean vocal learning mechanisms and our own may be quite circumscribed.
Are there ANY animals capable of complex vocal learning, that have brains and vocal tracts like ours? Yes: many seals are capable of vocal learning, and they produce vocalizations with a normal mammalian vocal tract and larynx (just like ours) and have a quite ordinary mammalian brain. (The most famous example is Hoover, a harbour seal who could speak). They are also relatively common, small (compared to humpback whales or elephants, another potential vocal learner) and very easily trained to vocalize.
Thus, pinnipeds (seals, sea lions and walruses) look like the best group of nonhuman animals to help scientists learn what's involved in complex vocal learning at the physiological, neurological, and genetic levels. You may be surprised to know that we know very little about vocal production or vocal control in this group."
If you click here you can find the website where the article is from.
Although it says it is a rare ability for animals to create vocal sounds, there are records of certain animals that can do it.
Visual Language
This section is just a selection of images that I think could represent the story in a visual way, such as fluid type to suggest water, illustrations of whales and various other symbolism.
Whales and Their Enemies
I thought this was a very eye-opening project by a group of students for a project where they had to create awareness for something, and they decided to focus on whale-killing. It is a whale made out of cardboard shapes painted white, and graphics screen printed on them to highlight various facts about whale killing. It is very well thought out, and the graphics are really visually interesting. I chose it because it reminds me of a Beluga whale with its colour, and it is a way which whales are used in a Graphic Design context.
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