(Repeat) NOVA Minute: How to Speak Walrus

Another NOVA Minute. I'm David Levin.

Well, walruses do use more structures for producing sounds than maybe any other mammal.

Marine biologist Colleen Reichmuth.

We tend to think about sound production as something that occurs basically at the larynx

and that words are shaped by the mouth and lips.

But walruses have a variety of structures that they can use.

They have these large pharyngeal sacs that are like almost an extra set of lungs

that they can use for moving air around and producing sound.

Then they can use the larynx, of course, to produce a lot of structured sounds.

And above the level of the larynx, they can also use their mouth and lips and tongue.

They have a really mobile muzzle.

And so by manipulating that muzzle, they can produce a whole range of different sounds.

Some of them they can make.

With the nose, the teeth, the tongue, the lips.

And they can produce a variety of really amazing sounds,

including whistles and grumbles and sniffles and belches and gloves and all kinds of things.

So they have a lot to work with in terms of the anatomy that can support their sound production.

Learn more about animal communication on pbs.org slash NOVA.