Behavioural Variations - The Song of the Humpback Whale

Jon Cornforth

Behavioural Variations are evidences of culture that don't have any sort of relationship to genetics. A Whales song is a form of social learning, for it is taught. This song develops and changes when whales are thousands of miles apart, where there is no one near to teach.

When whales socialize, they don't speak in a language like ours. Their language is more of a song with notes and sounds. These songs are similar to human songs; they deal with the same themes, yet they contain so much more information that humans can't interpret. A humpback whale's song contains about 200 times more information than a human's song. Groupings of these sounds have three uses: they can help whales communicate with others, they can help whales figure out where each other are (echolocation), and they are used for mating. Every species of whale has their own specific vocalizations. For the male humpback whale, this song is long and elaborate. Some of their songs can go on for hours, especially if they are the whales mating song. This song is sung in the breeding grounds by the male. All male humpbacks sing essentially the same song, but it changes and develops as time passes, and becomes distinctive to which ocean they are swimming in. For example, all humpback whales who swim in the Pacific Ocean will sing one type of song and humpback whales from the Indian Ocean will sing another.

However, in 1997, this separation changed. This change is known as the "Australian Revolution". On the east side of Australia there was a grouping of humpback whales who sang the South Pacific Ocean song. It was in 1997 when researchers started to notice a new song that was being sung. When it came time for the whales to travel south in '97, almost all of the humpbacks were singing this new song. The next year all of the Humpbacks were singing the song. Researchers discovered that the new song that was being sung was the Indian Ocean song sung by the humpback whales on the west side of Australia. It seemed that in 1996, a humpback whale from the West side of Australia went to the East, when traveling North. This new song perked the attention of all the other males and females. Just like a fad would take over and spread like wildfire, this song did the same to the whales. More and more male humpbacks started to sing the song until eventually, all the males were singing it. Thus proving the vulnerability of a whales culture and how the are influenced by each other.

http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/species/cetaceans/sound.html

http://whitelab.biology.dal.ca/lr/culture.pdf

http://whitelab.biology.dal.ca/hw/Cult_cons.pdf