Songkeeper whale
Basic Information
Anatomy
Songkeepers are among the smaller of the great whales. Their distinct grey and white coloring makes them visible from afar against the blues and greens of the Tesheli ocean, and the markings on their tail flukes are unique to each individual. Their broad fins taper to a trailing strand, giving them a fine-tuned sense of the currents around them.
Genetics and Reproduction
After a lengthy courtship procedure involving trading songs, dances, and competition among bull songkeepers, the typical gestation period for a calf is about a year. After the calf is born, it spends up to four years with its mother, learning hunting methods, songs, and survival techniques from her before setting out on their own. Because adult whales tend to be solitary, the father songkeeper usually does not play a role in raising the calf, though exceptions have been observed on occasion, especially in areas with particularly dense populations of songkeepers.
Growth Rate & Stages
Though a songkeeper is self-sufficient by four years old, they are not fully grown until about seven. They are sexually mature at this age, but usually do not mate until they are twenty due to the need to compete with older and stronger individuals. It is at about this age that their songs become fully developed.
Ecology and Habitats
Songkeepers and other great whales undoubtedly serve as a keystone species in their local ecosystems not only in life, but also in death. When a great whale dies, it tends to float up to the surface before becoming waterlogged and sinking to the ocean floor. In this way, it serves as an important food source for any number of scavenger species at all depths of the ocean. Even the whale's bones provide nutrition, as there are certain species of abyssal worms that can burrow through bone to consume the marrow within.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Songkeepers feed exclusively on krill and other tiny animals. These are found in abundance in most parts of Teshelyn's oceans, making songkeepers one of the world's few truly cosmopolitan species. Feeding is one of the few times when songkeepers are truly cooperative: a common feeding technique is for several whales to blow bubbles around a school of fish, disorienting and trapping them, at which point the whales take turns lunging through the school and feeding. This bubble net technique was adapted by the silverfen and augmented with their magic for similar effects on larger prey.
Additional Information
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Worldwide, but tends towards warmer regions
Average Intelligence
Data deficient. Song structure and meaning demonstrates a base level of sentience, but no deeper communication has been achieved between whales and other species.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Like all great whales, songkeepers possess exceptional hearing. Their powerful vocalizations can be heard for miles through the water, which results in a strong sense of unity among them. Songkeepers get their name from the fact that they are the most vocal of the great whales, and a majority of recordings at the cetalinguistic libraries are from songkeepers.
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
Several smaller animals build their lives around the presence of great whales. Barnacles and other mollusks attach themselves to the whale's skin, feeding on the same krill and small fish that the whales do. These can be a nuisance to younger whales, but generally do not bother fully grown adults. Other species follow whales on their feeding routes, either to share in their food or to prey on animals who do.
Civilization and Culture
Major Language Groups and Dialects
"Whalesong" is the name for the collective dialects of the great whales. Of all the dialects studied by cetalinguists, songkeeper is the best-known and most well-represented. For a very long time, the songs of whales were thought to be merely melodical vocalizations, but the discovery of an ancient recording of a conversation between a whale, an orca, and a balaceti changed that. This discovery birthed the field of cetalinguistics, which has been a hugely influential part of Tesheli society ever since.
But apart from that particular recording, there has been little to no evidence of communication between whales and other species. Dolphins and balaceti record whalesong for their own translation and study, but it is very rare that a whale will approach smaller species with a song.
Conservation Status
Data deficient, but with little cause for concern
Related Materials
Comments