It turned out that there was a trend in songs of whales, whether it was not last year's song

Humpback whalesMale males are known for singing songs for courtship in the breeding season but the songs have "hit songs of the year" and "songs of late fashion" as well as human epidemics is.

At some point the male of the same group sings the same song, but that song changes with the years, and at the beginning of the breeding season the whales who were singing the same song as last year, A song "remembered as soon as it appeared, and it was clearly confirmed by Australian biologists' research that the" last year's song "was completely replaced by" this year's song "at the end of the breeding season became. It is also known that the epidemic is transmitted from the west to the east.

Details are as below.Humpback whale songs spread eastward like the latest pop tune

University of QueenslandWhenSouth Pacific Whale Research Consortium(South Pacific Whale Research Association) biologists have observed songs from 6 neighboring Pacific humpback whales for more than 10 years, the whale songs have a trend, the epidemic is in the South Pacific It almost revealed that it will be transmitted from west to east without exception. Thesis isCurrent BiologyIt is published in the magazine.

Other whales sometimes "cry" with voice when courting,Humpback whales"Song" is a unique one with a complicated structure with a different dimension from it, and it repeats several "songs" of a few minutes to 30 minutes by a combination of several "melodies" many times It is known for singing, sometimes continuing to sing for over 20 hours.


Research on the structure of humpback whale songs is progressing considerably, but it seems that the reason why they sing in the first place has not been fully elucidated yet. It is believed to be a courageous behavior, but I do not know whether he is singing mainly for the purpose of attracting females or for keeping rival male away. However, the biologists who carried out this research seem to think that it is rather "attracting to the female".

"The quest of male seeking a novel song seems to be expected to be fascinating for females by having a different personality from everyone but I would like to sing the same song as everyone , The desire to synchronize also works so that new songs are imitated soon and the male singing the "slightly different" songs will be brought into the group as soon as possible, "said Ellen Garland, a graduate student at the University of Queensland I am talking.

When a new song appears, the group's men quickly remember them, new songs that appeared at the beginning of the breeding season generally rushed to the top of the whale's "hit chart" by the end of their breeding season , It seems that the popular song of last year is completely destroyed at that time.

When a new epidemic is born, in many cases it appears as a song that added something new elements to the elements of "songs of last year" and "songs that are currently in fashion", sometimes the songs of last year It is said that something like "no new song that nobody has ever heard" may be born, so to speak. This point may be similar to the trend of the music of the human world.

Of the six populations inhabiting adjoining in this study, the "popular song" born in the group on the east coast of Australia will be released about two years laterFrench PolynesiaThe pattern that the trend is transmitted from the west to the east is confirmed, which is prevalent in the group of. Conversely, the song that was transmitted from the east to the west was only one song in the observation period of 10 years.

Researchers think that patterns of epidemics traveling from the west to the east can be explained by the fact that the westernmost Australian population protrudes and is large (large number of individuals) among the group of humpback whales targeted for observation It seems to be. In addition, as a means by which popular songs have been transmitted beyond group boundaries, several male "transfers" from the original group to another group and "bringing in the song" and the group that swims nearby during migration It is thought that male of Mr. learns by listening to new song.

You can hear sample type 2 of the humpback whale sun in the South Pacific from the following link.

Garland2.mp3 (audio / mpeg object)