Migratory Convergence Facilitates Cultural Transmission of Humpback Whale Song
Cultural transmission of behaviour is important in a wide variety of vertebrate taxa from birds to humans. Vocal traditions and vocal learning provide a strong foundation for studying culture and its transmission in both humans and cetaceans. Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) perform com...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190337 |
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ftissuelab:oai:harvest.issuelab.org:35647 2023-05-15T16:36:04+02:00 Migratory Convergence Facilitates Cultural Transmission of Humpback Whale Song Clare Owen Jenny Alle Luke Rendell Michael J. Noad Rochelle Constantine Australia / New Zealand / Kermadec Islands Oceania / Pacific Islands 2019-09-09 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190337 eng eng The Royal Society Publishing doi:10.1098/rsos.190337 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Energy and Environment text 2019 ftissuelab https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190337 2022-01-09T08:54:49Z Cultural transmission of behaviour is important in a wide variety of vertebrate taxa from birds to humans. Vocal traditions and vocal learning provide a strong foundation for studying culture and its transmission in both humans and cetaceans. Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) perform complex, culturally transmitted song displays that can change both evolutionarily (through accumulations of small changes) or revolutionarily (where a population rapidly adopts a novel song). The degree of coordination and conformity underlying song revolutions makes their study of particular interest. Acoustic contact on migratory routes may provide a mechanism for cultural revolutions of song, yet these areas of contact remain uncertain. Here, we compared songs recorded from the Kermadec Islands, a recently discovered migratory stopover, to multiple South Pacific wintering grounds. Similarities in song themes from the Kermadec Islands and multiple wintering locations (from New Caledonia across to the Cook Islands) suggest a location allowing cultural transmission of song eastward across the South Pacific, active song learning (hybrid songs) and the potential for cultural convergence after acoustic isolation at the wintering grounds. As with the correlations in humans between genes, communication and migration, the migration patterns of humpback whales are written into their songs. Text Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae IssueLab (Nonprofit Research) Pacific New Zealand Royal Society Open Science 6 9 190337 |
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Open Polar |
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IssueLab (Nonprofit Research) |
op_collection_id |
ftissuelab |
language |
English |
topic |
Energy and Environment |
spellingShingle |
Energy and Environment Clare Owen Jenny Alle Luke Rendell Michael J. Noad Rochelle Constantine Migratory Convergence Facilitates Cultural Transmission of Humpback Whale Song |
topic_facet |
Energy and Environment |
description |
Cultural transmission of behaviour is important in a wide variety of vertebrate taxa from birds to humans. Vocal traditions and vocal learning provide a strong foundation for studying culture and its transmission in both humans and cetaceans. Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) perform complex, culturally transmitted song displays that can change both evolutionarily (through accumulations of small changes) or revolutionarily (where a population rapidly adopts a novel song). The degree of coordination and conformity underlying song revolutions makes their study of particular interest. Acoustic contact on migratory routes may provide a mechanism for cultural revolutions of song, yet these areas of contact remain uncertain. Here, we compared songs recorded from the Kermadec Islands, a recently discovered migratory stopover, to multiple South Pacific wintering grounds. Similarities in song themes from the Kermadec Islands and multiple wintering locations (from New Caledonia across to the Cook Islands) suggest a location allowing cultural transmission of song eastward across the South Pacific, active song learning (hybrid songs) and the potential for cultural convergence after acoustic isolation at the wintering grounds. As with the correlations in humans between genes, communication and migration, the migration patterns of humpback whales are written into their songs. |
format |
Text |
author |
Clare Owen Jenny Alle Luke Rendell Michael J. Noad Rochelle Constantine |
author_facet |
Clare Owen Jenny Alle Luke Rendell Michael J. Noad Rochelle Constantine |
author_sort |
Clare Owen |
title |
Migratory Convergence Facilitates Cultural Transmission of Humpback Whale Song |
title_short |
Migratory Convergence Facilitates Cultural Transmission of Humpback Whale Song |
title_full |
Migratory Convergence Facilitates Cultural Transmission of Humpback Whale Song |
title_fullStr |
Migratory Convergence Facilitates Cultural Transmission of Humpback Whale Song |
title_full_unstemmed |
Migratory Convergence Facilitates Cultural Transmission of Humpback Whale Song |
title_sort |
migratory convergence facilitates cultural transmission of humpback whale song |
publisher |
The Royal Society Publishing |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190337 |
op_coverage |
Australia / New Zealand / Kermadec Islands Oceania / Pacific Islands |
geographic |
Pacific New Zealand |
geographic_facet |
Pacific New Zealand |
genre |
Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae |
genre_facet |
Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae |
op_relation |
doi:10.1098/rsos.190337 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190337 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
190337 |
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1766026370928869376 |