Whale songs are far removed from the singing that humans are used to. Unlike our musical sounds, those produced by whales are a complex range of vocalisations that include groans, clicks and whistles and that can sound like anything from the mooing of a cow to the twitter of a bird. These vocalisations can be so powerful that they can be heard as far as 10km (6 miles) away, and can last for half an hour at a time.

But while they may not be exactly dancing material, whale songs are critical for communication: between males and females during mating, or among a school of whales migrating.

For researchers, these complex sounds are a window into whale behaviour, even if humans don’t yet know exactly how to decode them.

The frequency of songs and their intensity can signal various things: an

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