Researchers have discovered that beluga whales use their highly mobile forehead fat, called melon, to make distinct shapes that may serve as a form of communication. They identified five different shapes, such as flat, lift, press, push, and shake, through observations of captive belugas at the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. These shapes are displayed during social interactions and are believed to convey messages to other belugas. The research suggests that these shapes could be intentional signals or communications, as the majority of them occurred within another beluga’s line of sight.
One of the shapes, shake, has been linked to courtship and sexual behaviors among belugas. The study has been validated in a larger captive beluga population at MarineLand Canada, indicating a widespread use of these melon shapes among the whales. While some shapes, like shake and press, have been associated with specific behaviors, others such as flat are still being studied for their meaning. The study highlights the potential for using these shapes as a shared vocabulary to understand beluga communication better and decode their behaviors.
Further research is needed to explore how these shapes are used by wild belugas in their natural habitat, especially during activities like group foraging or mother-calf interactions. Understanding how these visual displays interact with beluga vocalizations, which include a variety of sounds like whistles and clicks, could provide valuable insights into their communication patterns. Researchers are intrigued by the possibility that these shapes convey important information among belugas, and decoding these signals could offer a deeper understanding of their social interactions and behaviors.
