Humpback Whales Change Their Tune
S Y D N E Y, Nov. 30 -- Australia’s east coast humpbackwhales are singing a very different tune these days and all inthe name of love.
Male humpbacks migrating along the east coast have stunnedscientists by abandoning their signature mating song andadopting a new tune from a small group of visiting Indian Oceanwhales.
“There has been a cultural takeover by the west coastwhales,” marine scientist Michael Noad told Reuters today.
New Song
“What is staggering is that all the males have switched tothe new song which was brought over by a few ambassadors fromthe west coast,” said Noad, co-author of a report on themusical revolution in the latest issue of scientific journalNature.
“It was a revolution in their culture, rather than anevolution,” Noad said.
And the revolution was akin to the arrival of rock ‘n’ rollin popular culture, with the east coast male humpbacks nowserenading the opposite sex with a low moan and big growlinstead of a higher pitched woop, woop, woop.
Between 1995 and 1998 scientists from the Marine MammalResearch Center at Sydney University analyzed 1,057 hours ofwhale songs recorded along the Australian east coast.
Humpback whale song patterns depend on where the whalelives, with populations inhabiting different oceans singingquite distinct songs. Whale songs typically run between sevenand 15 minutes and contain several themes like verses in humansongs.
The male whale produces his song from the larynx and on agood day the song is audible for up to 30 km (18 miles).
Whales sing their songs during the mating season to attractfemales as they swim from the icy Antarctic waters to warmnorth Australian waters and back to the Antarctic.
Musical Revolution?
In 1996 the scientists discovered that two humpback whales,out of 82 recorded, were singing a new song. The song wassimilar to tunes sung by whales visiting from the Indian Ocean.
A year later, most of the 112 whales recorded were usingboth the old and new song. But by the end of 1997 as the whalesmigrated back down the east coast towards Antarctica all themale whales had switched to the new song.
