Humpback Whales

Posted on March 30, 2006
Tags: Facts |

I find this really interesting.

Scientists have new evidence that humpback whales don’t just sing–they sing grammatically, combining sounds into phrases, and phrases into songs, according to complex rules called a “hierarchical syntax.” It’s similar to our ability to combine words into clauses and clauses into sentences.

The study, which squares with research dating back to 1971, says this is the first time non-human animals have been proven to possess such syntactic skill. Still, the researchers are quick to point out that whale songs aren’t really comparable to reading the newspaper. “Humpback songs are not like human language,” says project leader Ryuji Suzuki, “but elements of language are seen in their songs.”

Of course, humpback whales might point out that reading the newspaper isn’t half as cool as all the stuff they can do.

At 45 feet (14 meters) and 80,000 pounds (36 metric tons), humpbacks aren’t nearly as big as cousin Blue. But they can sing and dance. Humpbacks are the most vocal of all whales, and among the most acrobatic.

Sometimes they leap entirely out of the ocean. It’s common among males during mating season, when humpbacks migrate from polar feeding grounds to tropical breeding grounds. It’s also during mating season that humpback males sing their syntactically sophisticated songs, presumably in pursuit of humpback gals.

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I wonder what they “saying” to each other :)