An international team of researchers analyzed moans, moans, whistles, bark, screams, and creaks in recordings of humpback whale songs collected over eight years in New Caledonia.
Arnon et al. We have revealed the same statistical structure of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) Songs are characteristic of human language. Image credits: Christopher Michelle / CC by 2.0.
“I found something really fascinating,” said Dr. Emma Carroll, a marine biologist at Auckland University.
In this study, Dr. Carol and colleagues apply quantitative methods that are usually used to evaluate infantile utterances, and that this applies to culturally evolved learning songs in human languages. I found it. Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae).
In human language, structurally consistent units exhibit frequency distribution that follows the law of power. Zipfian distribution – Attributes that are likely to promote learning and enhance accurate conservation of language across generations.
The Humpback Whale Song is one of the most complex vocal displays in the Animal Kingdom and is passed down through cultural transmission, providing something compelling in parallel with human language.
These songs are highly structured, consisting of nested hierarchical components. The theme is combined with the sound elements that form the phrase, the phrases that are repeated in the theme, and the song.
If statistical properties of human language arise from cultural transmission, similar patterns should be possible to detect in whale songs.
The study authors analyzed recorded humpback whale song data over eight years using infant-inspired speech segmentation techniques.
They discovered a hidden structure in the whale song.
Specifically, these songs contain statistically coherent subsequences that fit the Zipfian distribution.
Furthermore, the length of these subsequences follows ZIPF's Law of Suspicion, an efficiency-driven principle found in many species, including humans.
This striking similarity between the two evolutionarily distant species emphasizes the deep role of learning and cultural communication in shaping communication across species, with such structural properties being exclusive to human language. It challenges the concept of being.
“The Whale Songs” at Griffith University, Dr. Jenny Allen, a leading expert on whale songs, said:
“This is why it offers such an exciting comparison.”
“These results provide unique insight into the importance of cultural communication in interspecies learning processes, particularly for learning complex communication systems.”
“A more interesting question is, rather than trying to adapt animal communication to holes in the form of “human language”? I think so. ”
“Using insights and methods from how babies learn languages allowed us to discover structures that were previously undetected in whale songs,” says Professor Inval Arnon of Hebrew University. Ta.
“This work illustrates how learning and cultural communication can form the structure of communication systems. Find similar statistical structures when complex continuous behaviors are culturally transmitted. You can do it.”
“It raises the interesting possibility that humpback whales can track the transition odds between sound elements, like human babies, and learn songs by using dips to segment those odds. Masu.”
study It was published in the journal today Science.
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Invalanon et al. 2025. The whale song shows a language-like statistical structure. Science 387 (6734): 649-653; doi: 10.1126/science.adq7055
Source: www.sci.news
