Humpback whale song revolutions continue to spread from the central into the eastern South Pacific
Cultural transmission of behaviour is an important aspect of many animal communities ranging from humans to birds. Male humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) sing a repetitive, stereotyped, socially learnt and culturally transmitted song display that slowly evolves each year. Most males within...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsos.220158 2024-06-02T08:07:56+00:00 Humpback whale song revolutions continue to spread from the central into the eastern South Pacific Schulze, Josephine N. Denkinger, Judith Oña, Javier Poole, M. Michael Garland, Ellen C. Royal Society NERC Sea Mammal Research Unit Rufford Foundation National Geographic Society Project CETACEA Ecuador COCIBA grants of USFQ 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220158 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.220158 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.220158 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Royal Society Open Science volume 9, issue 8 ISSN 2054-5703 journal-article 2022 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220158 2024-05-07T14:16:34Z Cultural transmission of behaviour is an important aspect of many animal communities ranging from humans to birds. Male humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) sing a repetitive, stereotyped, socially learnt and culturally transmitted song display that slowly evolves each year. Most males within a population sing the same, slow-evolving song type; but in the South Pacific, song ‘revolutions’ have led to rapid and complete replacement of one song type by another introduced from a neighbouring population. Songs spread eastwards, from eastern Australia to French Polynesia, but the easterly extent of this transmission was unknown. Here, we investigated whether song revolutions continue to spread from the central (French Polynesia) into the eastern (Ecuador) South Pacific region. Similarity analyses using three consecutive years of song data (2016–2018) revealed that song themes recorded in 2016–2018 French Polynesian song matched song themes sung in 2018 Ecuadorian song, suggesting continued easterly transmission of song to Ecuador, and vocal connectivity across the entire South Pacific Ocean basin. This study demonstrates songs first identified in western populations can be transmitted across the entire South Pacific, supporting the potential for a circumpolar Southern Hemisphere cultural transmission of song and a vocal culture rivalled in its extent only by our own. Article in Journal/Newspaper Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae The Royal Society Pacific Royal Society Open Science 9 8 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
The Royal Society |
op_collection_id |
crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Cultural transmission of behaviour is an important aspect of many animal communities ranging from humans to birds. Male humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) sing a repetitive, stereotyped, socially learnt and culturally transmitted song display that slowly evolves each year. Most males within a population sing the same, slow-evolving song type; but in the South Pacific, song ‘revolutions’ have led to rapid and complete replacement of one song type by another introduced from a neighbouring population. Songs spread eastwards, from eastern Australia to French Polynesia, but the easterly extent of this transmission was unknown. Here, we investigated whether song revolutions continue to spread from the central (French Polynesia) into the eastern (Ecuador) South Pacific region. Similarity analyses using three consecutive years of song data (2016–2018) revealed that song themes recorded in 2016–2018 French Polynesian song matched song themes sung in 2018 Ecuadorian song, suggesting continued easterly transmission of song to Ecuador, and vocal connectivity across the entire South Pacific Ocean basin. This study demonstrates songs first identified in western populations can be transmitted across the entire South Pacific, supporting the potential for a circumpolar Southern Hemisphere cultural transmission of song and a vocal culture rivalled in its extent only by our own. |
author2 |
Royal Society NERC Sea Mammal Research Unit Rufford Foundation National Geographic Society Project CETACEA Ecuador COCIBA grants of USFQ |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Schulze, Josephine N. Denkinger, Judith Oña, Javier Poole, M. Michael Garland, Ellen C. |
spellingShingle |
Schulze, Josephine N. Denkinger, Judith Oña, Javier Poole, M. Michael Garland, Ellen C. Humpback whale song revolutions continue to spread from the central into the eastern South Pacific |
author_facet |
Schulze, Josephine N. Denkinger, Judith Oña, Javier Poole, M. Michael Garland, Ellen C. |
author_sort |
Schulze, Josephine N. |
title |
Humpback whale song revolutions continue to spread from the central into the eastern South Pacific |
title_short |
Humpback whale song revolutions continue to spread from the central into the eastern South Pacific |
title_full |
Humpback whale song revolutions continue to spread from the central into the eastern South Pacific |
title_fullStr |
Humpback whale song revolutions continue to spread from the central into the eastern South Pacific |
title_full_unstemmed |
Humpback whale song revolutions continue to spread from the central into the eastern South Pacific |
title_sort |
humpback whale song revolutions continue to spread from the central into the eastern south pacific |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220158 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.220158 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.220158 |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae |
genre_facet |
Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae |
op_source |
Royal Society Open Science volume 9, issue 8 ISSN 2054-5703 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220158 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
8 |
_version_ |
1800753086101192704 |