How Humpback Love Songs Go Viral
Humpback whale – creative commons.
Part Four of a series celebrating the cultures of whales
When a humpback whale sings a new love song, other whales are listening. If they like the song, they add it to their own repertories. And any given song may become a hit as it gets passed along – all the way across the Pacific Ocean.
That was the conclusion of a breakthrough study in 2011 by scientists who had tracked several separate groups of humpbacks over 10 years, recording different song types. They found that each year, the songs were spreading from one group to another, moving east from Australia to East Polynesia.
In each group, the singers were mostly male, and they were quick to pick up new songs they were hearing from neighboring groups a few miles away.
Why are whales so interested in learning new songs from each other? Probably for the same reasons that humans like to learn new songs.
“If you change your song, you stand out,” said Ellen C. Garland, lead author of the study. “We could speculate that that could be more attractive to the females.” She added that male humpbacks are enthusiastic singers. “When the new song types come in, it’s a chance for them to really go for it.”
Next page: How Dolphins Start Clubs
