A few late viral Internet posts have arrogate that the " 52 hertz whale " , sometimes billed as the humankind ’s lone whale , has in conclusion found a friend . But is there any truth to it ?
What is the 52 hertz whale?
For those naive in the tale of the 52 hertz heavyweight , in 1989 a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution heard a peculiarly unusual heavyweight call , unlike anything that had been heard before or since . Picked up on sensor across the Pacific Ocean , the whale call descend in at 52 hertz , far higher than any whale specie known to follow its migration pattern . Its movement has similarity to that ofblue whales , but blue whale have a frequency range of 10 to 39 Hz , with predominant frequencies of 16 to 28 Hz , according to thebioacoustics research program at Cornell University .
" This intelligent author has been the only one with this call structure in the intact listening field , " the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institutionwrote in areport on whale call datum in 2000 . " We have been tracking this call since 1992 and have not identified the whale species , " adding that " perhaps it is a hybrid " .
The whale has been hear consistently over the years , suggesting that its unusual call ( and perhaps , lonely sprightliness ) hasnot had a detrimental impacton its survival despite its years of calling with no response .
The lonely whale caught the world ’s imagination and inevitably it finish up as aTwitter burlesque history . Slighty less of necessity , it also inspired Korean superstars BTS ’s songWhalien 52 .
Does the 52 hertz whale have a friend?
According to late net posts , however , there is upright news program in that the whale has a 52 cycle per second friend .
As skillful as that sounds , there is no new grounds . It ’s likely cite back in 2010 , when widely separated sensing element off the glide of California clean up whale birdsong with asimilar pattern to the 52 hertz whale , mean potentially more than one animal was babble . Pretty inconclusive , though , even without further grounds of a whale friend showing up in the subsequent 12 years it ’s beendocumented .
Is the 52 hertz whale lonely?
However , there is practiced news in that the whale might not be as alone as it has been present . According to Christopher Clark , director of the Bioacoustics Research Program at Cornell , the heavyweight can likely be " understood " or recognise by other downhearted whales . Withwhales in unlike areas having dissimilar dialect , Clark says that the whale may not even be that " intellect - bogglingly unparalleled " .
" The animal ’s tattle with a lot of the same features of a distinctive depressed whale song , " Clarksaid in 2015 . " Blue whales , fin whale and Megaptera novaeangliae whales : all these hulk can hear this guy wire , they ’re not deaf . He ’s just rum . "
In further potential right news , the 2021 documentaryThe Loneliest Whale : The lookup for 52documenting theater director Joshua Zeman ’s lookup for the elusive cetacean mammal land a tantalizing potential happy ending to the tarradiddle of the " lonely " creature . Initially evidence the giant was probably all in as no one had hear him in years , not only did Zeman ’s squad detect the unequalled song in a surprising berth , off the west coast of Los Angeles , but – spoiler – the epilogue reveals a sighting of a possible down - fin whale hybrid ( rarified butnot unheard of ) that could be the source of the 52 hertz calls .
All “ explainer ” articles are substantiate by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing . Text , icon , and links may be edited , removed , or added to at a later day of the month to keep information current .
