Whale Spotify
The songs we listen to can tell people a lot about us, like where we grew up and where we have traveled; it turns out the same can be said about the songs sung by whales.
While female humpbacks can vocalise, it is only the males that produces complex melodies. We don’t know for certain why they sing; maybe it helps them stay together as they travel, maybe they do it to communicate with, and teach, the younger whales… maybe like us they just think singing is fun! What we do know is they tend to do it mostly during mating season, so there is a good chance it has something to do with impressing the females.
The music of any particular humpback whale population is unique to them, with all males singing pretty much the exact same song. But, they don’t sing that song forever! They start with a simple song, which all the males sing, but over time individual whales will add a little change that the others may pick up. The song will get more and more complex, being added to and change over time. But, after around three years all the males will suddenly drop it and start singing an entirely new song (and so the cycle continues).
WHAT INSPIRES THEIR NEW MUSIC?
Humpback whales travel A LOT! Every year they swim around 5000km between their breeding grounds and their feeding grounds . The young males will lead the way, the adult whales will follow, while pregnant mothers and those with young babies will be the last to make their way down the coast.
(Sounds about right. Ever tried to walk down a crowded street with a younger brother or sister in tow? Kids, they slow you down! The struggle is real.)
Along the way whales from different populations will stop to rest and hang out together, and while the males share space with whales from other populations they may take inspiration from each others songs.
Musical mash up
In 2019 a study was published call ‘Migratory convergence facilitates cultural transmission of humpback whale song’, which is kind of a fancy way of saying ‘Meeting other whales on a rest break while traveling gives them a chance to share songs’.
The scientists spent 2 months recording whale songs near the Kermadec Islands. Scientists only recently discovered that lots of different humpbacks stop here along their migratory route. While there, the scientists put an instrument called a hydrophone, a sort of waterproof microphone, into the water and recorded the males singing.
Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the South Bank, Dominican Republic. Christopher Michel CC BY 2.0.
Most of the recordings sounded like songs scientists have heard before, sung by whales born around New Caledonia, Tonga, Niue and the Cook Islands. This tells us that the stopover at the islands is used by, and very important to, whales from those populations.
Perhaps our favourite part of the study was the discovery of one particular whale who was singing a sort of musical mash-up. His song was a mix of the one sung by the whales from his population, with bits and pieces from the songs sung by whales he met around the island. It’s all a big musical jam session, creating new songs they may take home to sing to the females.
WHAT YOU KNOW NOW!
While female humpbacks can vocalise it’s the males who sing complex songs
Each population has a song that is unique to them, but they don’t sing the same song forever
Whales will learn from whales from other populations along their migratory route
Whale song can be used to tell us where a whale is from, and where they stop along their migratory route
Song can be used to identify which areas are important to which whales