Media release

From: Springer Nature

1.  Ecology: Investigating sperm whales’ complex calls *IMAGE & VIDEO*

Sperm whale communication may be more complex than previously thought, according to new research published in Nature Communications. Sperm whales can combine and modulate different clicks and rhythms to create complex calls, similar to human language, the authors suggest.

Communication is important for social animals to help them to make group decisions and coordinate joint tasks, such as foraging and rearing young. Sperm whales are sociable mammals that communicate with each other using sequences of clicks. While some of their clicks have previously been shown to communicate their identity, little else is known about the sperm whale communication system.

Praytusha Sharma and colleagues used data from The Dominica Sperm Whale Project, the largest repository of sperm whale data. They analysed recordings from about 60 different whales from the Eastern Caribbean sperm whale clan and use them to define a ‘Sperm Whale Phonetic Alphabet’ of click combinations from recordings of this clan. They found that the whales’ communication system is more complex and has a greater information-carrying capacity than previously thought. The combination and structure of the click sequences produced was found to depend on the conversational context of the individuals. The authors also identify a ‘combinatorial structure’ to their language, where they can combine and modulate different clicks and rhythms to create complex vocalisations, similar to human language.

While the function and meaning of the click combinations is still unknown, the authors suggest that sperm whale language is potentially capable of representing a large number of possible meanings.