Humpback whales can spread their songs from Australia to Ecuador

Published:

5 Sep 2022 20:43 GMT

The researchers suggest that song transmission is not exclusive to humpback whales and that it can be applied to the study of the evolution of human language and culture.

The songs of male humpback whales in some parts of the Pacific Ocean are mimicked by whales in other parts of the ocean at enormous distances of up to 14,000 kilometers, shows a new study by an international team of researchers from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. , the Universidad San Francisco de Quito and the Acoustic Ecology Program of the CETACEA Project in Ecuador.

Male humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, were previously known to sing a stereotyped song that slowly evolves each year and is transmitted from eastern Australia to French Polynesia. However, scientists were unaware of the extent of this “cultural transmission,” said the article, published in Royal Society Open Science.

Although it’s not clear why whales sing such songs, oceanographers suspect it’s probably for the same reason many birds, humans, and other species in the animal world do: to attract a mate.

The study suggests that the one-way transmission of song in the South Pacific extends not only from Australia to French Polynesia (about 6,000 km), but also an additional 8,000 km to Ecuador. This finding demonstrates that there is vocal connectivity between populations that are separated by 14,000 km.

To reach such a conclusion, scientists recorded humpback whale songs between the years 2016 and 2018 at various sites in the Pacific. After analyzing the sounds, they discovered that two populations, one in French Polynesia and the other near Ecuador, had been singing two very different songs between 2016 and 2017, but that in 2018 both groups were recorded singing the same song.

“Half the world is now vocally connected by whales,” Ellen Garland, a marine biologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and one of the study’s co-authors, said in her comments to New York Times.

The study argues that understanding this cultural phenomenon will provide valuable insights for studying the evolution of complex communication, including the evolution of human language and culture. “As with humans, migration patterns are written in humpback whale songs,” the conclusion reads.