Abstract
Male humpback whales produce a long, complex, and stereotyped song on low-latitude breeding grounds; they also sing while migrating to and from these locations, and occasionally in high-latitude summer feeding areas. All males in a population sing the current version of the constantly evolving display and, within an ocean basin, populations sing similar songs; however, this sharing can be complex. In the western and central South Pacific region there is repeated cultural transmission of song types from eastern Australia to other populations eastward. Song sharing is hypothesized to occur through several possible mechanisms. Here, we present the first example of feeding ground song from the Southern Ocean Antarctic Area V and compare it to song from the two closest breeding populations. The early 2010 song contained at least four distinct themes; these matched four themes from the eastern Australian 2009 song, and the same four themes from the New Caledonian 2010 song recorded later in the year. This provides evidence for at least one of the hypothesized mechanisms of song transmission between these two populations, singing while on shared summer feeding grounds. In addition, the feeding grounds may provide a point of acoustic contact to allow the rapid horizontal cultural transmission of song within the western and central South Pacific region and the wider Southern Ocean.
Highlights
Male humpback whales produce a long, stereotyped and constantly evolving vocal breeding display, termed ‘song’ [1,2]
Themes identified from the Antarctic Area V recordings matched song themes from the two closest breeding populations which are likely to feed in this region, eastern Australia and New Caledonia
The similarity of four Antarctic Area V themes to song from the previous year from eastern Australia, and the same year in New Caledonia, indicates that singing in summer on shared feeding grounds is one possible mechanism through which song can be transmitted between these populations
Summary
Male humpback whales produce a long, stereotyped and constantly evolving vocal breeding display, termed ‘song’ [1,2]. Males conform to the current arrangement and content of the song [3,4,5]. The conformity to a single song type within a population is thought to occur via vocal learning from surrounding males and, when song transmission is examined at the ocean basin scale, is considered one of the best examples of horizontal cultural transmission in a non-human animal [6]. Song similarity among populations indicates that acoustic contact is likely to have occurred, there is currently little known about the mechanism(s) through which song transmission is mediated. Identifying all potential mechanisms of transfer is essential to understanding the dynamics of song transmission within and across regions
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