Humpback Whale Songs Spread Eastward Like the Latest Pop Tune

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2011) — Humpback whales have their own version of the hit single, according to a study reported online on April 14th in Current Biology. At any given time within a population, male humpbacks all sing the same mating tune. But the pattern of the song changes over time, with the new and apparently catchy versions of the song spreading repeatedly across the ocean, almost always traveling from west to east.

"Our findings reveal cultural change on a vast scale," said Ellen Garland, a graduate student at The University of Queensland. Multiple songs moved like "cultural ripples from one population to another, causing all males to change their song to a new version." This is the first time that such broad-scale and population-wide cultural exchange has been documented in any species other than humans, she added.

Researchers from The University of Queensland in collaboration with members of the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium made the discovery by searching for patterns in whale songs recorded from six neighboring populations in the Pacific Ocean over a decade. This revealed a striking pattern of cultural transmission as whale songs spread from Australia to French Polynesia over the course of about two years.

"The songs started in the population that migrates along the eastern coast of Australia and then moved -- just the songs, and probably not the whales -- all the way to French Polynesia in the east," Garland said. "Songs were first learnt from males in the west and then subsequently learned in a stepwise fashion repeatedly across the vast region."

more

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110414131444.htm

[aquart]

1. What happens to a humpback singing an old song?

[Ian David]

3. They go to Branford. n/t

[Ian David]

2. "Gotta be fresh, gotta have my krill." n/t

[xchrom]

4. recommend

[slay]

5. So this means no Kirk and Spock from the future yet?

At least we haven't killed them all off. Whales are awesome. Sucks what we are doing to this planet - their/our home. :(