Whale 'Pop Songs' Spread Across the Ocean

摘要

Just like humans, humpback whales in the South Pacific follow musical trends that change by the season, a new study reveals. The hits move from west to east across thousands of miles of ocean—from the east coast of Australia to French Polynesia—over a year or two. The authors say it's one of the most complex and rapid patterns of cultural evolution across a region ever observed in a nonhuman species.