Weeping whales: Stillborn humpback whale grieving documented

Unsurprisingly, mammals (not just humans) also fear death and are very distressed when being lead to slaughter and seeing their peers go down before them.

Paper [0]

[0] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44338-026-00232-9

Blows my mind that so many people just have this hardened internalized idea that we're somehow significantly different than any other animal.

Sure, we've got them beat on language and planning, but we're currently in the process of being passed up on both those fronts by multi-dimensional arrays of floating point numbers sitting inside of sand. So, like, how special is that then, really?

I come here to read about the impending AI apocalypse, not feel feelings.

Any parent here who has known this loss can relate. Didn’t think I’d see this on HN but yeah this is heartbreaking.

Orcas have also been seen to carry their dead calf's around.

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/southern-reside...

> indicated an inherent, strong maternal attachment to the calf

Yeah, that's not grieving.

"She remained with it for several hours and possibly even days." Interesting article, but that comment veers into speculation. Speculation diminishes the value of a scientific article.

When I was a little boy, with XY chromosomes, I enjoyed vinyl records and record players. I came across a nice flex-disc, from a magazine such as National Geographic, and it was full of whalesong, recorded with underwater microphones from the deep. (I am sorry for posting this a day too late to Talk Like a Pirate...) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexi_disc

I distinctly recall playing these whalesongs in a record player at my paternal grandparents' house. They had a rec-room with acoustics more like a bathroom than a bedroom: the floor was tiled or linoleum and the furniture was not so plush and soft, so the whalesong from the speakers would reverberate while I played in front of my family.

And I believe that my mother enjoyed listening to that stuff, too. I mean, could we understand it? I can't say "no"; we got the message on some superficial level, but way out of context, to be sure. The disc's sounds were definitely a montage or a medley of different sessions, from different locations.

Now you know that all the kids today will have seen Finding Nemo and we love DOry when she speaks whale and saves the situation, but then she ends up misbehaving. But there is a practical use for "speaking whale" in modern times. When there is a poor connection such as VoIP, and I notice that "you're breaking up" and the sound is intermittent or the connection is slow, I begin "speaking whale" where I elongate the vowels and slow down the cadence, and this can help get the messages through a congested medium.