Thaindian News

London, April 15 (IANS) Whales become fixated on new tunes just like people do, and the most popular original whale songs spread globally like hit singles, says a new study.

Exotic whale species like humpback can be identified from the unique marking on the underside of its tail.

They can weigh two tonnes at birth. A full grown whale can be 45-ft-long and weigh up to 40 tonnes, reports the journal Current Biology.

The discovery has stunned marine experts who say it is the first time such a large, ‘population wide cultural exchange’ has been seen in the animal kingdom.

Male humpback whales are famed for the loud, long and complex songs they make during the mating season, according to the Daily Mail.

Scientists are unsure why the males sing. Some believe it is a way of advertising themselves to females, others say that it allows migrating whales to stay in contact.

Each song lasts for 10 to 20 minutes and the males can sing continuously for 24 hours.

At any one time, all the males in a population sing the same song. But a study shows that this song changes over time and spreads around the oceans.

Queensland University’s Ellen Garland, who led the study, said: “Songs move like cultural ripples from one population to another, causing all males to change their song to a new version.”

Researchers recorded songs from six neighbouring populations of whales in the Pacific over a decade. They found that new versions of the songs appear over time and always spread from west to east.

It takes two years for songs that appear in the waters off Australia to be heard in French Polynesia.

Garland believes that a small number of whales may migrate to other populations carrying the new songs with them, or that they are heard by passing whales.