Harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena)
Skull (original), with melon (3D-printed)
15 x 25 x 15 cm
Coll. Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, RBINS 42558
The harbour porpoise is the smallest and most common cetacean in the North Sea. It produces clicks using phonic lips in the nose, amplifies them in the melon in its forehead, and receives the echoes through the lower jaw.
Audio recording of a porpoise Phocoena phocoena.
You hear an excerpt from clicking the porpoise before, during and after catching a prey. You hear a few
clicks (before the prey) and then a series of faster clicks (catching the prey) and then back to slow
clicking (after the catch).
The sound you hear has been adjusted to be audible to the human ear. What you hear is the actual speed
at which the porpoise made the clicks, but not the actual volume, which is ultrasonic and inaudible to
humans.
Sound courtesy of Stacy DeRuiter, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Released under Creative Commons License, non-commercial attribution.
