By studying the songs of humpback whales, researchers aim to uncover the vast wellsprings of communications that exist throughout Planet Earth — and potentially beyond.
Astronomer Dr. Laurance Doyle, Research Scientist at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, and Dr. Fred Sharpe, Principal Investigator at the Alaska Whale Foundation are working to decode complex long-distance communication of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae).
With TWCF-funded research, they aim to deepen understanding of group dynamics and information transfer in whales, and other intelligences — human and non-human.
Hear about their multidisciplinary approach to exploring diverse intelligences in this classic episode of Stories of Impact podcast.
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Humpback whales are low-frequency vocal specialists. Marine environments enable sound to travel efficiently, allowing whales to communicate through what can be thought of as a "global aquatic internet." Humpback whales are particularly intriguing due to their large auditory cortex, upside-down pyramidal cells, and clusters of spindle neurons, features associated with language acquisition and social intelligence in humans.
These features support the humpback's exceptional acoustic abilities, including their long, rhyming, and constantly evolving songs. Their vocal range also includes a variety of lesser-known social sounds, with at least 40 distinct social calls. [Listen to the podcast to hear ground-breaking recordings of whale song from the 1970s made by Frank Whatlington and Roger Payne.]
To capture and study the many vocalizations of these whales, Doyle and Sharpe's research team employs a high-resolution hydrophone array. Information Theory — the mathematical study of the quantification, storage, and communication of information — is then applied to signals derived from the array and from the parsing of long-term datasets. This part of their research looks at the structure and patterns in communication, rather than the specific meaning of messages. The behavioral context — or meaning — of the vocalizations is visually monitored, observing the humpback’s response to playbacks.
Humpback whales' complex cooperative hunting technique — bubble netting — uses sound to herd herring as prey. Bubble netting groups are formed based on fishing ability rather than family ties, and the bonds last across decades and over lifetimes. "With humpback whales we see this very unique use of sound in the ocean. The feeding calls are an interspecies herding cry. We see them team hunting, using these bubble tools and in a co-operative, communal fashion," says Sharpe. "Certainly these social sounds — they're very complex and the amount of surface area for them to encode information is huge — are highly important sounds. They could each be their own sort of symbol or glyph. And they have lots of information. And that's why working with the SETI to help decipher these signals is really exciting."
Doyle adds, "We can measure the complexity but it's definitely non-human. I hesitate to use the word 'syntax' without quotes because humpback whales are communicating on their own and we don't really fully understand exactly what and how they, for example, can generate a bubble net and herd herring into it, in a coordinated effort, but they somehow get all the ideas across. As far as we know, humpback whales don't make democratic decisions, but they do make decisions based on ability." The bubble net groups are based on "meritocracy," confirms Sharpe. This "shows that they're very good at planning for the future, anticipating events, and accommodating each other," he says.
"These bubble netting coalitions... are like a food co-op! I mean, they came up with the food co-operative idea probably millions of years ago, open membership. They're diverse and there seems to be this amazingly equalness to their groups. And the fact that these are not relatives... Some of these bonds last across summers, decades, perhaps even lifetimes," says Sharpe. "You can call them economic bonds, but when you watch these whales, they sure seem like friendships."
Using the word "friendship" in relation to whales is not that far-fetched. The spindle neurons of these creatures, also found in some apes and dolphins, have been linked to language, social intelligence, facial recognition, compassion, and altruism in humans. "We know that we share a deep common ancestry in the part of the mammalian mind that controls basic emotions. It's really ancient. The neurotransmitters that course through their veins and brains are similar to ours. So, there's all kinds of reasons to think that these animals live very complex emotional and cognitive lives," Sharpe points out. Humpback whales are also known to be compassionate, he shares. Research shows over a hundred incidences of humpback whales coming to the aid of other species when they're in distress.
Doyle and SETI are interested in "quantifying the degree of complexity in non-human communications systems." In other words, they're focused on analyzing the intelligence within signals, not just detecting technology. Including other intelligences, such as humpback whales, in the SETI concept is important, says Doyle, because there are "different structures in a communication system than just the way humans have structured things. I think we could miss a signal if it was structured in such a way that we would have analyzed it as a human language instead of as a non-human communications system."
To have an extraterrestrial intelligence, Doyle shares, "you have to have astronomy, you have to have a communication system that's complex enough, and you have to have tools." These whales have two of the three. "They have the requirement of a complex society communications system and they have tool use (bubble net), and if it turns out that they use stars to navigate it all that would be the big three. I'm not saying they'll build the radio telescope, of course, but they are a good example of a species that would fulfill the three requirements of an extraterrestrial intelligent technology."
Both scientists emphasize that understanding whale communications and other non-human intelligences could shift human thinking, reminding us of our place in the universe and inspiring better care for our planet.
Studying diverse intelligences "deprovincializes our thought about ourselves...It gets you thinking big...It's putting us in perspective," says Doyle. "It's kind of like we went to the moon in Apollo 8, got that picture of Earth, and that really sparked the ecological movement. Hey, this is a spaceship we're riding first class and we need to take care of it!"
This podcast is a 2020 MarCom Awards Gold Winner.
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Built upon the award-winning video series of the same name, Templeton World Charity Foundation’s “Stories of Impact” podcast features stories of new scientific research on human flourishing that translate discoveries into practical tools. Bringing a mix of curiosity, compassion, and creativity, journalist Richard Sergay and producer Tavia Gilbert shine a spotlight on the human impact at the heart of cutting-edge social and scientific research projects supported by TWCF.
