A new study released by Michael Noonan, a professor from Canisius College, examined 5,000 minutes of beluga whale observation and found they blow bubbles underwater based on their mood, according to Phys.org. The study took place over eight years and examined beluga whales at Marineland of Canada in Niagara Falls, Ontario, according to Science Daily.
"Underwater bubbling is a fairly common behavior in beluga whales," said Noonan. "It's an enigmatic and delightful behavior but also a very complex behavior."
Noonan and his team embarked on the study after they realized how counterintuitive it is for belugas to blow bubbles — due to the fact that they rely on maintaining oxygen in their blood while underwater — and set out to find the reason for this behavior, according to Nature World News.
The study found that 97.2 percent of all beluga bubbles can be categorized in one of four ways: blowhole drips, blowhole bursts, blowhole streams and mouth rings. Each of these bubble types is indicative of their mood. Furthermore, all of these bubbles are produced by both male and female belugas as well as juvenile and adult whales.
In particular, blowhole drips and mouth rings are associated with a playful mood and, in beluga females, this bubble type is more common, suggesting they are more playful than their male counterparts. Blowhole bursts, which are associated with a startled response, were also more commonly found in females, only this time adult females in particular, suggesting they are more reactive than adult males.
Noonan and his team also found that on certain days, belugas blew bubbles more than others, leading them to suggest that it could be tied to the contagious nature of their social behavior.
"A contagious effect, in which the bubbling of one beluga stimulates or at least facilitates a similar bubble release by another whale, could explain the occurrence of extremely high bubble days at frequencies greater than that predicted by chance," he said.
