Whale skeleton

As soon as he enters, the visitor comes face to face with the skeleton of a whale. It belonged to a Bryde's whale and has been properly preserved and mounted in a module separate from the Museum's central building.

• It belonged to a Bryde's whale and has been properly preserved and mounted in a module separate from the Museum's central building.
• Its Latin name is Balaenoptera edeni, and it is a species that reaches a length of some 15 meters or more. To the left of the skeleton, there is a silhouette of a person and a drawing of a Bryde's whale to compare sizes.
• In Venezuela it is called the "sardine whale" because it feeds on shoals of sardines. This habit makes it come very near the shore on occasions, where it can get stranded, something that happens quite frequently along the eastern and southeastern coasts of Margarita and on the eastern coasts of the island of Cubagua.
• The skeleton is a magnificent specimen that was stranded on the beaches of Cubagua in July 1994, and later mounted by Pablo Figueroa, a master taxidermist.
• What you are hearing (Quick Time required) is the sound they make.
• All the large whales are capable of emitting sounds, both on the surface and underwater. They can use sounds to communicate with one another, as other land vertebrates do. But there is one species in particular, the humpback whale, that has a rich repertoire of sounds with a defined structure -a beginning, a development and an end-, just like the songs we normally hear.
• Something else that is interesting is that during the mating season all the males "sing" the same song, which, over time, is gradually modified and new tunes evolve.
• These harmonious sound, which can last between 15 to 30 minutes, make up what is, perhaps, one of the longest songs in nature. So far it is not know exactly what these songs mean, although it is more than likely that they have to do with the species' reproductive and social habits.
• Thanks to the fact that water is an excellent medium for transmitting sound (much more effective than air), these whale songs can be heard over enormous distances. The legend of the mermaid's song heard by ancient mariner may have its origins in the sounds emitted by the humpback whale.
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