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Scientists have tracked down Antarctic blue whales for the first time by following the animal's song.

The huge mammals are rarely spotted in the Southern Ocean, but scientists from Australia picked up their deep sounds with special acoustic equipment.

They recorded 626 hours of songs and studied over 26,000 different calls.

With the information they were able to locate them and attach satellite tags to two whales to learn about their movements in the summer feeding season.

It's thought to be the first time whale sounds have been used to find their current location.

Scientist Virginia Andrew-Goff who worked on the project said that this way of studying the whales had been so successful that other researchers would follow.

Pictures courtesy of Australian Antarctic Division