WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Do Whales Have Pop Songs?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vobblebomb here with a classic episode from our archives.

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<v Speaker 1>I love this one about humpback whales and their haunting songs.

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<v Speaker 1>It turns out that humpbacks repeat and build on each

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<v Speaker 1>other's music, similar to how humans play and cover pop songs.

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<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff, I'm Lauren vogelbaumb And as it turns out,

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<v Speaker 1>humans aren't the only creatures that create and riff on

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<v Speaker 1>catchy tunes.

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<v Speaker 2>Whales have pop music too. During breeding season, as male

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<v Speaker 2>humpback whales swim along, they sing the same song. Females

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<v Speaker 2>never sing, only males do to find a mate or

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<v Speaker 2>to posture for other males. The song is passed back

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<v Speaker 2>and forth between the members of a pod, each whale

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<v Speaker 2>adding his own little flourishes, and as that pod meets

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<v Speaker 2>other pods, they pass the tunes along until whole oceans

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<v Speaker 2>ring with the song of the moment. In the world

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<v Speaker 2>of human pop music, what was the hot song of

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<v Speaker 2>the summer will be dropped by every radio station in

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<v Speaker 2>the fall to make room for the new hot thing.

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<v Speaker 2>A research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society

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<v Speaker 2>b suggests that the same is true for whale songs.

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<v Speaker 2>The popular tune becomes gradually more and more complex as

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<v Speaker 2>it's altered by different populations of humpbacks, but after a

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<v Speaker 2>few years, the whales grow tired of their complicated ditty

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<v Speaker 2>and start from scratch again. The research team, based out

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<v Speaker 2>of the University of Queensland rated the complexity of song

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<v Speaker 2>recordings of ninety five humpback whales from different populations in

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<v Speaker 2>the Indian Ocean over the course of thirteen consecutive years.

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<v Speaker 2>They found that over the course of a couple of years,

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<v Speaker 2>the same song spread all the way across the South Pacific,

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<v Speaker 2>from East Australia to French Polynesia. Lead author Jenny Allen,

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<v Speaker 2>a marine biologist in the Cetacean Ecology and Acoustics Laboratory

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<v Speaker 2>at the University of Queensland, said in a press release.

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<v Speaker 2>Typically these songs changed gradually, possibly through embellishments by individual singers.

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<v Speaker 2>We suspect the embellishments allow bulls to stand out from

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<v Speaker 2>their peers, much like teenage boys trying to stand out

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<v Speaker 2>from the crowd. But every few years the songs are replaced,

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<v Speaker 2>always by something simpler, suggesting there is a limit to

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<v Speaker 2>the whale's capacity to learn new material. Although there is

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<v Speaker 2>evidently a limit to how much whales can learn, the

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<v Speaker 2>build up and abandonment of particular songs signifies a rapid

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<v Speaker 2>cultural change over thousands of miles of ocean. Alan said

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<v Speaker 2>that's basically unparalleled in non human culture. Dolphins do have

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<v Speaker 2>fads too, though they have only been observed on a

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<v Speaker 2>smaller scale. An individual named Billy, who learned to walk

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<v Speaker 2>backwards on her tail and captivity, later taught the trick

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<v Speaker 2>to some wild dolphins after she was released. The dolphin

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<v Speaker 2>moonwalk really took off for a while.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode is based on the article humpback Whales start

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<v Speaker 1>simpler songs as old ones get too complex on houstuffworks

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<v Speaker 1>dot com. Written by Jesslyn Shields. Brainstuff is production of

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<v Speaker 1>by Heart Radio in partnership with houstuffworks dot Com and

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<v Speaker 1>its produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts my heart Radio,

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