FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT SPERM WHALE LANGUAGE
1 WHALE SPEECH
Scientists studying the sperm whales that live around the Caribbean island of Dominica have described for the first time the basic elements of how they might be talking to each other, in an effort that could one day help better protect them. Like many whales and dolphins, sperm whales are highly social mammals and communicate by squeezing air through their respiratory systems to make strings of rapid clicking sounds.
2 THE WHALE PHONETIC ALPHABET
While scientists still don’t fully understand the clicks, they now think there are sets of clicks that make up a “phonetic alphabet” that the whales can use to build the very rough equivalent of what people think of as words and phrases. “We’re now starting to find the first building blocks of whale language,” said David Gruber, founder and president of the Cetacean Translation Initiative or CETI.
3 COLLECTING CLICKS
To get enough examples of the sperm whale clicks in Dominica, where there is a resident population of about 200 whales, scientists created a giant underwater recording studio with microphones at different depths. Tags on the whales also record what position they are in when clicking — for example diving, sleeping, breathing at the surface — and if there are any other whales nearby they might be communicating with.
4 BIG BRAINS
Sperm whales have the biggest brains of any animal on the planet at up to 20 pounds, as much as six times the size of an average human brain. They live in matriarchal groups of about 10 and sometimes meet up with hundreds or thousands of other whales. Gruber, a biology professor at the City University of New York, said sperm whales seem to have sophisticated social ties and deciphering their communication systems could reveal parallels with human language and society.
5 UNDERSTANDING SPERM WHALE BEHAVIOUR
Diana Reiss, a marine mammal behaviour and communication expert at the City University of New York, said scientists understand certain aspects of marine animals’ communication reasonably well, including the whistles used by dolphins and the songs sung by humpback whales. But when it comes to sperm whales, even that basic knowledge is lacking. “What’s new in this study is that they are trying to look at the basis for the whales’ communication system ... not just particular calls they’re making,” she said.