New research gives insight into whale communication

Different dialects in sperm whales reveal more than meets the ear

In a study led from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, researchers believe they have uncovered more information regarding the different dialects sperm whales use to communicate.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The study focused on how sperm whales communicate, specifically if the languages are genetic or cultural in origin. Whales off the Galapagos Islands in the eastern Pacific were chosen for the study.

The research team wrote their findings in Nature Communications and noted whale chatter is a system of clicks and the vocalizations are not innate. 

Two clans were using specific clicking languages, also called codas. PhD student Maurício Cantor explained, "These codas sound like Morse code -patters of three to 12 or 15 clicks that vary in rhythm and tempo ... In one clan we call 'the regular clan,'  we heard regularly spaced clicks, but in another vocal clan that we call the 'plus-ones,' the coda types they make have an extended pause at the end before the last click."

Professor Hal Whitehead clarified that the two clans are extremely different.

"They behave differently; they move around differently; they babysit their babies differently," Whitehead told the BBC. "And so while a family unit from the regular clan will get together with another family unit from the same clan, sometimes for days - and the same for the plus-ones - we've never seen a regular unit associate with a plus-one unit."

The group's research indicates languages are taught from one whale to another and one clan sometimes copies bits of other codas which, "over time, [can produce] these different dialects."
Clans are never entirely alone. They often encounter other clans and learn from each other.

Professor Whitehead said, "Having spent a lot of time out there with them, it's become clear to me that in many ways sperm whales are even more social than us. They have little permanent in their environment except each other. They depend on each other for all kinds of things. You can see it - they touch each other a lot; they nuzzle. And being vocal creatures, it's not surprising they use sounds a lot."

He continues to say that studies to see how the clicks were made, they discovered the language was used as a way to bond with one another. 

"A second function is to indicate 'we are all the same social unit because we work together and have the same dialect,' but also, at a larger scale, to say 'we are part of the same clan' -and that may include thousands of whales who all see themselves as part of the same large social grouping," Whitehead said.

BBC Radio 4's Inside Science programme with Tracey Logan and BBC World Sercives's Science In Action programme with Jack Stewart will be meeting with the Dalhousie team later this week. 

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