Sperm whales, the largest of the toothed whales, communicate using bursts of clicks called codas, a bit like Morse code. New analysis of years of vocalizations by sperm whales in the eastern Caribbean shows their communication system is more sophisticated than previously known, showing a complex internal structure full of 'phonetic scripts' There was found. Researchers have identified similarities with other animal communication systems and even aspects of human language.
Like all marine mammals, sperm whales are highly social animals, and their vocalizations are an integral part of that. New research provides a more complete understanding of how these whales communicate. “This study shows that the expressiveness of sperm whale calls is much greater than previously thought,” said the author, a doctoral student in robotics and machine learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who published Tuesday in Nature said Pratyusha Sharma, lead author of the study published in the journal Communications.
“We still don't know what they're saying. We're next studying the calls in the context of their behavior to understand what sperm whales are communicating.” said Sharma. Sperm whales can reach lengths of around 18 meters and have the largest brains of any animal. They dive deep to feed on giant squid and other prey.
The researchers are part of the Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) machine learning team. They used traditional statistical analysis and artificial intelligence to examine the sounds of approximately 60 whales recorded by the Dominican Sperm Whale Project. The Dominican Sperm Whale Project is a research program that has assembled a large dataset on this species.
“Why are they exchanging coders like this? What information are they sharing?” asked study co-author Shane Gero. He is the lead biologist for Project CETI, founder of the Dominican Sperm Whale Project, and affiliated with Carleton University, Canada.
“I think they probably use the coda to organize family coordination, babysitting, foraging, defense, etc.,” Gero said.
The researchers found that changes in the number, rhythm, and tempo of the clicks produced different types of codas. Among other things, whales changed the length of their codas and sometimes added extra click sounds at the end, like suffixes in human languages.
“All of these different coders that we see are actually built by putting together a series of small parts that are relatively simple,” said co-author of the study, MIT computer science professor and director of the project. said CETI member Jacob Andreas.
People generate words that convey meaning, often by combining sounds that correspond to letters of the alphabet, and create sentences that convey more complex meanings by generating sequences of words. For humans, “there are two levels of combination,” Sharma said. The lower level is sounds to words. A higher level is word-to-sentence conversion.
Sperm whales also use characteristic two-level combinations to form codas, Sharma said, and the codas are then sequenced as the whales communicate. Sharma said the lower levels are similar to the letters of the alphabet.
“Every communication system is tailored to the environment and animal society in which it evolved,” Sharma added.
The communication system used by sperm whales is different from, for example, the “song” of humpback whales. Furthermore, it is different from the whistles, chirps, cries, and various other vocalizations of various animals.
“Human language is unique in many ways, yes,” Gero said. “But as science advances, I suspect we'll find many patterns, structures and aspects that are thought to be unique to humans in other species, including whales. And perhaps animals that humans don't have. ” If scientists can decipher the meaning of what sperm whales are “saying,” should people communicate with them?
“I think there's still a lot of research that we have to do before we know if it's a good idea to try to communicate with them or if it's actually possible,” Andreas said. .
“At the same time, we are learning a lot more about what information is actually encoded in the vocalizations we hear, and what kind of information is contained in clicks and sounds. We are optimistic that we will learn. Once we begin to understand the behavioral context in which this occurs, the coda will begin,” Andreas added.
The different species of whales that live in Earth's oceans use different types of vocalizations to communicate.