Researchers in Australia discovered that wild grey seals clap their flippers underwater to communicate.
While most marine mammals use vocal calls or whistles to chat, Halichoerus grypus can also smack their arms together as a show of strength.
The animals, according to a Monash University-led international study, employ this technique during breeding season to warn off competitors and advertise to potential mates.
“The discovery of ‘clapping seals’ might not seem that surprising. After all, they’re famous for clapping in zoos and aquaria,” lead study author David Hocking, a research fellow in the Monash School of Biological Sciences, said in a statement.
“But where zoo animals are often trained to clap for our entertainment,” he explained, “these grey seals are doing it in the wild of their own accord.”
The findings, published today in the journal Marine Mammal Science, are based on video footage collected by Ben Burville, a visiting researcher with Newcastle University in the UK.
After 17 years of diving, Burville finally caught a male grey seal clapping its paw-like flippers to produce a gunshot-like “crack” sound.
“The clap was incredibly loud and at first I found it hard to believe what I had seen,” Burville said. “How could a seal make such a loud clap underwater with no air to compress between its flippers?”
As anyone who’s ever roughoused in a pool can tell you, other species (like whales and otters) can produce a similar percussive sound by slapping the water with their body or tail.
This is the first time a completely submerged seal has been spotted using its front flippers to clap.
The loud, high-frequency sound cuts through background noise, sending a clear signal to other seals in the area.
“Depending on the context, the claps may help to ward off competitors and/or attract potential mates,” Hocking said, likening it to a “chest-beating male gorilla.”
“Like seal claps, those chest beats carry two messages: I am strong, say away; and I am strong, my genes are good,” he explained.
Clapping appears to be an important social behavior for grey seals; any disturbances could impact breeding success and survival for the species.
“Human noise pollution is known to interfere with other forms of marine mammal communication, including whale song,” Hocking said. “But if we do not know a behavior exists, we cannot easily act to protect it.”
This breakthrough—eye-opening as it is—only proves how much we still have to learn about the animals living among us.
A study published last summer suggests grey seals can mimic songs using the same sound production mechanisms as, say, Elton John.
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