1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:09,800 Speaker 1: I'm Lauren vogel Bomb. And as it turns out, humans 3 00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:12,960 Speaker 1: aren't the only creatures that create and riff on catchy tunes. 4 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:17,160 Speaker 1: Whales have pop music too. During breeding season, as male 5 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:21,480 Speaker 1: humpback whales swim along, they sing the same song. Females 6 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:24,079 Speaker 1: never sing, only males do to find a mate or 7 00:00:24,079 --> 00:00:27,200 Speaker 1: to posture for other males. The song is passed back 8 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:29,760 Speaker 1: and forth between the members of a pod, each whale 9 00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:32,960 Speaker 1: adding his own little flourishes, and as that pod meets 10 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:36,360 Speaker 1: other pods, they pass the tunes along until whole oceans 11 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:39,040 Speaker 1: ring with the song of the moment. In the world 12 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:41,680 Speaker 1: of human pop music, what was the hot song of 13 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:44,159 Speaker 1: the summer will be dropped by every radio staged in 14 00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:46,159 Speaker 1: the fault to make room for the new hot thing. 15 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:49,600 Speaker 1: Research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B 16 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:52,920 Speaker 1: suggests that the same is true for whale songs. The 17 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:56,080 Speaker 1: popular tune becomes gradually more and more complex as it's 18 00:00:56,080 --> 00:00:59,440 Speaker 1: altered by different populations of humpbacks. But after a few years, 19 00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:02,280 Speaker 1: the whales were tired of their complicated ditty and start 20 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:05,440 Speaker 1: from scratch again. The research team based out of the 21 00:01:05,520 --> 00:01:09,120 Speaker 1: University of Queensland, rated the complexity of song recordings of 22 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:13,080 Speaker 1: back whales from different populations in the Indian Ocean of 23 00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:16,600 Speaker 1: the course of thirteen consecutive years. They found that over 24 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:18,640 Speaker 1: the course of a couple of years, the same songs 25 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:21,280 Speaker 1: spread all the way across the South Pacific, from East 26 00:01:21,319 --> 00:01:25,440 Speaker 1: Australia to French Polynesia. Lead author Jenny Allen, a marine 27 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:28,600 Speaker 1: biologist in the Cetacean Ecology and Acoustics Laboratory at the 28 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:32,040 Speaker 1: University of Queensland, said in a press release. Typically these 29 00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:36,840 Speaker 1: songs changed gradually, possibly through embellishments by individual singers. We 30 00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:39,959 Speaker 1: suspect the embellishments allowables to stand out from their peers, 31 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:42,559 Speaker 1: much like teenage boys trying to stand out from the crowd. 32 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:45,840 Speaker 1: But every few years the songs are replaced, always by 33 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:49,000 Speaker 1: something simpler, suggesting there's a limit to the whales' capacity 34 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:52,520 Speaker 1: to learn new material. Although there is evidently a limit 35 00:01:52,520 --> 00:01:54,720 Speaker 1: to how much whales can learn, the build up and 36 00:01:54,800 --> 00:01:58,760 Speaker 1: abandonment of particular songs signifies a rapid cultural change over 37 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:02,320 Speaker 1: thousands of miles of ocean in Alan said that's basically 38 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:06,720 Speaker 1: unparalleled in non human culture. Dolphins do have fads too, 39 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:09,240 Speaker 1: though they have only been observed on a smaller scale. 40 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:12,960 Speaker 1: An individual named Billy, who learned to walk backwards on 41 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:15,440 Speaker 1: her tail and captivity, later taught the trick to some 42 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:18,799 Speaker 1: wild dolphins. After she was released, the dolphin moonwalk really 43 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:25,880 Speaker 1: took off for a while. Today's episode was written by 44 00:02:25,919 --> 00:02:28,400 Speaker 1: Justlin Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on 45 00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:30,800 Speaker 1: this and lots of other catchy science topics, visit our 46 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:43,959 Speaker 1: home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.