Sperm Whales Form Culturally Distinct, Female Based Societies
Sometimes known as whale nations, these clans are tens of thousands strong
Hiya!
If you’ve read much of my writing, you’ve probably recognized some themes. One of which is that we humans aren’t as different from the rest of the animal kingdom as we assume. It’s easy for us to separate ourselves and view our unique capabilities as superior to all other species on Earth. However, new research challenges that perspective, forcing us to reevaluate our supposed superior intelligence.
I’ve discussed several examples in this newsletter of scientists discovering many similarities between us and other animals. All of these call into question the idea that humans are Earth's only highly intelligent species. Now, I’m adding another one. It turns out that sperm whales form culturally distinct clans that can reach tens of thousands in size and behave in ways that researchers describe as “tribal.”
Sperm Whales
At 400,000 pounds (20 tons), the iconic Antarctic blue whale may be the largest known animal on Earth, but sperm whales are the largest-toothed whale. They also have the biggest brains and the most powerful sonar of any animal on the planet and live in oceans worldwide. Male sperm whales can grow 60 feet (18 meters), while females can grow up to about 40 feet (12 meters), but they’re most recognized for their giant heads, which take up about a third of their bodies.
Unfortunately, these majestic animals were widely hunted by humans during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries for their oil, which was used for various purposes, including oil lamps, lubricants, and candles. Sperm whale oil was used in automatic transmissions for most American cars until 1971.
Some whale populations have recovered thanks to the International Whaling Commission issuing a moratorium on killing great whales in 1982, which paused commercial whaling from the 1985/1986 season onwards and is still in effect today. However, sperm whale populations are nonetheless recuperating and remain listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Thankfully, many humans have stopped viewing whales as products and started realizing they’re intelligent animals that should be respected. One such person is Shane Gero, a biologist at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, who wants to communicate with animals.
For almost twenty years, Gero kept meticulous records of the clicking noises made by two sperm whale clans living in the Caribbean. He also recorded what the whales did when they made sounds. After studying the data, Gero discovered that the whales used specific sound patterns, known as codas, to identify each other. Further, the whales learned these codas by repeating the sounds adults make, similar to how human toddlers learn names and words.
Gero has gone on to do more important work, such as becoming the lead biologist for the Project Cetacean Translation Initiative (CETI), which is working to deploy underwater microphones attached to buoys to record the vocalizations of Dominica's resident whales around the clock. However, Gero is by no means alone in his quest to understand sperm whales.
New Study
Hal Whitehead, a sperm whale scientist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, has studied wild sperm whales since 1985.
Using a combination of drone surveys and underwater microphones, Whitehead analyzed the whales' sounds and their feeding habits. He also references previous research, including Gero’s, to further study sperm whale communication and published his (many) findings in the Royal Society Open Science journal.
Findings
Using Gero’s research, Whitehead defined sperm whale populations by the variations in their codas — the distinct clicking sequences that sound a bit like Morse code.
Of the roughly 300,000 sperm whales in the Pacific Ocean, Whitehead and his colleagues identified seven distinct, self-organized clans of about 20,000 sperm whales. Whitehead told The Guardian:
“This is a huge number for culturally defined entities outside modern human ethnolinguistic groups.”
He also said he likes the phrase “whale nations” to reflect the scale of these distinct clans better. But that’s not the only exciting thing the researchers found. They also noticed that the clans sometimes interacted but never interbred. It is almost as if their social group gives them a sense of identity, like a tribe.
Whitehead states in the study that these whale nation tribes appear “almost entirely female-based.” Male sperm whales will visit the female clans from time to time, but only for a few hours to mate. Females raise their offspring, but not alone. Certain designated females take on the role of “alloparental” care and will watch over the calves while their mothers dive for food.
Further, Whitehead was amazed by the social organization of these whale nations. Sperm whales, it seems, use group consensus instead of top-down leadership (like we do) to make decisions. Whitehead said he’d seen whales take an hour or more to make a 90-degree turn while they decide where they should go as a group. In a way, it reminds Whitehead of a whale version of democracy that is “slow and messy,” like our own.
Whitehead is excited by a few broad-scale similarities between us and sperm whales. Still, he also carefully points out, “Sperm whales are very different from humans, and sperm whale clans are very different from human ethnolinguistic groups.”
Perspective Shift
Of all the animals alive today, whales and elephants have always seemed like the most ancient and wise to me, like an old-growth forest. So, I wasn’t too surprised by Whitehead’s research. I think I’d be more surprised if whales didn’t have any sort of sophisticated social structure. Still, I am super excited this knowledge is out there now.
Humans love to think that we’re at the top of the food chain and are the only highly intelligent animals on this planet, to the point that we search Space hoping to discover alien intelligent life that might match our own. But like Whitehead and countless other scientists show, we are not the only sophisticated or intelligent animal on Earth.
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It’s interesting that a matriarchal arrangement seems to serve them well. Food for thought.