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posted by martyb on Wednesday September 04 2019, @06:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the accent-on-the-accent dept.

New Scientist:

Sometimes when you travel, you still betray where you came from when you open your mouth. The same thing seems to apply to humpback whales: features of their songs can reveal where they originally came from. What's more, when whales travel their songs change as they pick up new tunes from whales they meet that have come from different regions.

"Our best analogy is hit human fashion and pop songs," says Ellen Garland at the University of St Andrews in the UK. The sharing of whale song is a kind of cultural transmission that can give clues about where a whale has travelled along its migration, and where it started out. "We can pinpoint a population a whale has likely come from by what they are singing," she says.

Please, whales, don't swim next to Seoul. I can't take any more k-pop.

See also: phys.org.


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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday September 04 2019, @08:50PM (1 child)

    by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday September 04 2019, @08:50PM (#889686) Journal

    Just sit right back and you'll hear a whale
    A whale that took a mighty trip
    It started near a tropic port and ended on a whale hunting mother fucking ship

    I'd like to eat Mary Ann, but not the Skipper or Gilligan or Mrs. Howell. Maybe put a pinch of Ginger on my Mary Ann....

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05 2019, @01:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05 2019, @01:33PM (#890013)

    I love how I got the tune right in my head, just because you started with "just sit right back..."

    Not bad for a 3 season show.