Humpback whale song complexity and evolution on a North-western Pacific breeding ground: Okinawa, Japan

Funding: Royal Society (UF160081, URF\R\221020). Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) sing a slowly evolving, sexually selected song display socially learned from conspecifics. Within an ocean basin, song similarity between breeding populations can reveal the degree of connectivity among th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Royal Society Open Science
Main Authors: Marwood, Eleanor M., Eichenberger, Franca, Kobayashi, Nozomi, Okabe, Haruna, Ozawa, Sachie, Rendell, Luke Edward, Garland, Ellen Clare
Other Authors: The Royal Society, University of St Andrews.Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews.Centre for Biological Diversity, University of St Andrews.Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution, University of St Andrews.Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews.School of Biology, University of St Andrews.Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland, University of St Andrews.Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences, University of St Andrews.Bioacoustics group
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Song
Cultural transmission
Cultural evolution
Humpback whale
Okinawa
Japan
QH301 Biology
DAS
QH301
Pacific
Humpback Whale
Megaptera novaeangliae
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10023/31370
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.241388
Description
Summary:Funding: Royal Society (UF160081, URF\R\221020). Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) sing a slowly evolving, sexually selected song display socially learned from conspecifics. Within an ocean basin, song similarity between breeding populations can reveal the degree of connectivity among them. In the northwestern Pacific Ocean, there is a paucity of information on song dynamics and linkages across the ocean basin. Here, we quantified fine-scale song evolution in whales near Okinawa, Japan, using similarity indices (Levenshtein distance and Dice’s similarity) and song complexity measures to investigate three consecutive years (2011–2013) of song dynamics on this breeding ground. Matched song themes revealed minimal evolution between 2011 and 2012, while the 2013 song was more distinct, as singers sang both new and evolved versions of themes. This was mirrored by the song complexity scores, which decreased and then increased over time. Qualitative comparisons of Okinawa song themes to other published North Pacific breeding ground songs revealed many themes were shared across the North Pacific, contributing to the growing body of evidence of a single panmictic song lineage across the North Pacific Ocean basin, in contrast to the South Pacific. Understanding geographically differing song dynamics is essential to revealing the underlying drivers of this ocean basin-wide non-human culture. Peer reviewed

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