how whales learn new tunes

Humpback whales are just people like you and me, as I realised recently when reading a paper about how they learn new tunes. This was one of those moments when hours of leisure time (in this case: time spent in pubs playing wrong notes at the wrong time) magically transform into valuable research. The resulting feature, covering whale songs and folk tunes among other cultural highlights, is out now:


Cultured cetaceans

Current Biology Volume 27, Issue 22, 20 November 2017, Pages R1193–R1196


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Humpback whales are known for their elaborate songs, which spread through
entire populations by social learning. (Photo: skeeze/Pixabay.com.)



PS there's also a research paper on feeding strategies in blue whales in the same issue, which is why there is a whale shown on the cover as well: