Humpback whales in the Pacific learn songs from their eastern neighbours

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-08-31 09:01

Australia; Pacific

Humpback whales in the South Pacific learn songs from their eastern neighbours and this eastward spread of songs starts off the coast of Australia and spreads all the way through to Ecuadore. The researchers found that songs recorded in 2016–2018 in French Polynesia matched songs sung in Ecuador in 2018, and the song type could be traced back as far as Tonga in the western South Pacific. They say this suggests that humpback whales are connected vocally across the entire South Pacific Ocean basin.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Humpback whale song revolutions continue to spread from the central into the eastern South Pacific
Royal Society Open Science

Male humpback whales sing a repetitive, stereotyped, socially learnt, and culturally transmitted song display. Most males within a population sing the same, slow-evolving song type; but in the South Pacific, song ‘revolutions’ have led to rapid and complete replacement of one song type by another introduced from a neighbouring population. Songs spread eastwards, from eastern Australia to French Polynesia, but the easterly extent of this transmission was unknown. Here, we show song revolutions continue to spread from the central (French Polynesia) into the eastern (Ecuador) South Pacific region demonstrating vocal connectivity across the entire South Pacific Ocean basin.

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research The Royal Society, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of St Andrews, UK, Marine Mammal Research Program, French Polynesia

Funder: The NERC Sea Mammal Research Unit made a contribution toward the write up of this study (NE/R015007/ 1). E.C.G. is currently funded by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (UF160081). Fieldwork in French Polynesia was funded by a Royal Society Newton International Fellowship (NF140667) and National Geographic Society/Waitt grant (no. W396-15) to E.C.G. Funding in Ecuador was provided to J.D. by COCIBA grants of USFQ in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and Rufford Foundation grants to J.O. as well as volunteer contributions of Project CETACEA Ecuador.

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.