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It has become famous as the loneliest whale in the world. It swims through the Pacific calling out for others, but never gets an answer.

That is because Whale 52 is the only one of its kind, with a unique song all of its own. That, at least, is the story. But while biologists have no doubt that a mysterious whale is out there somewhere, the rest of the popular tale is not quite as told.

For starters, he 鈥� male whales do the singing, so it almost certainly is a he 鈥� may not be alone. 鈥淭here is probably more than one,鈥� says John Hildebrand of the in San Diego, California. On plenty of occasions, his team has recorded the distinctive Whale 52 call on widely separated hydrophones 鈥� off San Diego and 300 kilometres north-west in the Santa Barbara channel, for instance 鈥� within a few hours, he says.

Whale 52 was so named because, when the unusual call was first identified by biologist Bill Watkins in 1989, he sang at 52 hertz. Over the years, the song has gradually deepened to 47 Hz.

The seasonal movements of Whale 52 resemble those of blue whales, so he has long been suspected to be at least partly blue whale. Watkins proposed he was a hybrid between a blue and a fin whale. We know such hybrids exist because a few have been caught by whalers.

Hildebrand is even more specific, suggesting he is the offspring of a blue whale mother and fin whale father. Fin whales are drummers, singing in short pulses, he says, while blue whales are opera singers, holding the note. Whale 52鈥檚 song is a bit of a mix. 鈥淐ulturally it鈥檚 like a blue whale鈥檚,鈥� Hildebrand says. That suggests Whale 52 heard blue whale songs while his mother was with other blue whales, but he cannot sing them correctly.

We won鈥檛 know for sure until we get a DNA sample. Last year, the preliminary expedition of a to film Whale 52 drew a blank. Part of the challenge is that the acoustic lab鈥檚 network of hydrophones is not connected to shore 鈥� by the time the recordings have been retrieved and analysed, the animals they detect are long gone. There has been talk of setting up a live monitoring network in the Santa Barbara channel to help stop blue whales being killed by ships. This would greatly increase the chances of finding the mysterious animal 鈥� or animals.

If there is only one, is it fair to describe him as lonely? Pop star Taylor Swift raised this question . 鈥淓verybody feels so sorry for this whale 鈥� but what if this whale is having a great time?鈥� she asked.

Maybe, but we think male whales sing mainly to attract mates, and 52 has almost certainly failed to woo a partner. That does not mean he is lonely 鈥� for whales mating is not about companionship 鈥� but he could well be frustrated. Perhaps Whale 52 is actually the horniest whale in the world.

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