How Marine Animals Use Sound to Stun, Mate and Predate

Venture into the ocean and you will find it is not the tranquil environment it is made out to be.  From the tiniest plankton to gigantic baleen whales, marine animals are an active and noisy bunch.  As online gambling is synonymous with the jingle-jangle of coins, the ocean is a hot bed of clicks, snaps, grunts and high-pitched whale song.

Why Marine Creatures Generate Sound

Why do marine creatures make such an infernal racket?  When you consider the world’s oceans cover more than 360 million square kilometres – that is around 70 percent of the Earth’s surface – navigating through that kind of void is the first major challenge.

Finding the same species to mate with can be tricky at the best of times.  When there are great distances separating one creature from another, the odds of mass extinctions would soar if reproduction was based on sight and sight alone.

Seriously?  How can one expect a fiddler crab to date and procreate if they have to find their way through complex sea caves and across coral reefs with only a few compound eyes set on stalks?  It’s like navigating through the myriad casino games at Springbok Casino with a blindfold on and still expecting to win the online gambling jackpot!

Ocean Acoustics is a Cacophony of Sound

If marine animals can’t rely on sight to locate their natal breeding grounds, hunt and trap prey and find their forever friends, how do they survive and even thrive in the endless expanses of the ocean?  Yup, you’ve guessed right, they use sound in all its guises – hums, echoes, thuds, snaps, clanks, squeals, reverberations and the finely orchestrated calls of the cetaceans.

Sonar Based on Natural Echolocation

Long before human beings introduced Sonar as a method of using sound waves to locate and detect objects underwater, whales and dolphins had mastered the art of echolocation.  In fact, echolocation, or biosonar as it is also known, is the natural precursor to sonar and operates on exactly the same principles.

The key difference is cetaceans – whales and dolphins – have the innate sensory ability to detect, localize and recognise distant or invisible objects based on the bounce-back echoes of their calls.  They don’t need machines or echo chambers to pinpoint exactly where the shoreline is or how far they have to travel for the next meal.

The good news is at Springbok Casino you don’t need to practice echolocation or invest in sonar to find the best real money casino games.  We have listed all the red-hot online gambling prospects according to genre right here in the casino lobby!

Across Ocean Basin Communications

Not all whales use sound to navigate or hunt by.  Baleen whales like Humpbacks and Blue whales use low frequency sound to communicate over huge distances.  As sound waves travel further in water, whale song can travel up to 16,000 km across an entire ocean basin.  That is roughly the same distance as Cape Town to Fairbanks in Alaska!

Imagine saying ‘how do you do’ as you wallow off Cape Point and getting a response right back from beyond the Arctic Circle?  What is even more remarkable is baleen whales don’t have vocal cords, so quite how they emit sound that can travel vast distances remains a mystery.

Whale Song is Really All Hot Air!

What we do know is toothed whales like Orca generate sound by moving air between the sinuses in their head.  These sounds, however, are typically used to echolocate prey and navigate the immediate marine environment.  As a result, they are not meant to travel far and are hardly comparable to the songs of the baleen whales.

That is how the big guns use sound to predate, navigate and ward off other predators.  How about the little uns?  Do they also create a cacophony all of their own?

Beware the Snap-and-Stun Antics of the Pistol Shrimp

They sure do, as is evident from the snap-and-stun antics of a diminutive five-centimetre-long crustacean known as the snapping shrimp, pistol shrimp or alpheid shrimp.  These tiny animals have a disproportionately large claw that is used to create loud snaps to stun small reef fish and other prey.

The actual physiology of the claw is such that when the two pistol-like pinchers are snapped together, they create a super-charged wave of bubbles that is powerful enough to shatter a small glass jar!

When these little fellas are all grouped together in a colony, they can make so much noise it actually interferes with human sonar and the vessels ability to navigate.  How’s that for packing a punch?  Especially considering sonar is believed to be directly responsible for mass strandings and deaths of thousands of dolphins and whales each year.

Marine Animals are the Musicians of the Deep

From the butt-ugly toadfish that use loud bellowing sounds to attract mates, to the enigmatic bowhead whale that has a repertoire of songs reputed to be more jazz than classical, marine animals are the musicians of the deep… and noisy ones at that!

At our online gambling platform, Springbok Casino we don’t need to navigate cyberspace or use acoustics to find our next meal.  What we do need to do is warn you of the predatory rogue casino operators out there that are waiting to ensnare you in their lies.

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If you are looking for an online gambling destination that is regulated and certified fair, you have come to the right place.  We also don’t mind if you whistle, play country and western music, or scream and shout as you bet, play and hopefully win right there at Springbok Casino!

All you have to do is tap the ‘Sign Up’ button and enter your details online.  Once you are registered and full-fledged member of Springbok Casino, you’ll have the best games, support services and online gambling bonuses available on-demand.