Whale's-Eye View
Inside the Search and Destroy Theater, visitors to Giants of the Deep are treated to a virtual first-cetacean view of what it's like to be a sperm whale hunting for giant squid. The animation is based on actual data recorded on digital tags.
One experience the theater can't convey is more existential. In the last few years, researchers have learned to distinguish between the vocalizations made by different sperm whales. Instead of hearing a mass of undifferentiated clicks, they now hear dialogues, providing unprecedented insight into a long-lived, highly social species that appear to have culture, and maybe even names.
Image: AMNH/R. Mickens