{"id":621965,"date":"2026-04-22T22:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/621965\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T22:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:12:15","slug":"sperm-whales-theyre-just-like-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/621965\/","title":{"rendered":"Sperm Whales \u2014 They\u2019re Just Like Us"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what\u2019s getting our team talking. Tell us what you\u2019ve been reading at <a href=\"https:\/\/reasonstobecheerful.world\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection\" class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"ee87808881ae9c8b8f9d81809d9a818c8b8d868b8b9c889b82c099819c828a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a> and we just might feature it here.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-16687 alignright\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"The Guardian logo\" width=\"183\" height=\"100\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/The-Guardian-logo.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>When things click<\/p>\n<p>How much do you have in common with a sperm whale? More than it would seem: New research has found that sperm whale communication closely resembles humans, according to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2026\/apr\/15\/sperm-whales-alphabet-vocalizations-similar-humans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a story from the Guardian<\/a> shared by RTBC Contributing Editor Michaela Haas. Sperm whale vocalizations \u2014 clicking sounds known as codas \u2014 are \u201chighly complex and represent one of the closest parallels to human phonology of any analyzed animal communication system,\u201d the new study explains. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6173 alignleft\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" width=\"101\" height=\"113\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/BF_14b_AuthorMichaelaHaasbyGayleLandes-e1708459692523.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Michaela says:<\/p>\n<p>A fascinating update from Project CETI (which <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/reasonstobecheerful.world\/sperm-whale-clicks-ai-conservation\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">I wrote about two years ago<\/a>). I\u2019m fully convinced sperm whales are highly intelligent.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-22400 alignright\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" width=\"101\" height=\"101\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Wall-street-journal-logo.gif\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Worth its salt<\/p>\n<p>Some news you might not expect from a West Coast city: San Diego now has so much water that it can share some with its drought-plagued neighbors. That\u2019s thanks to the desalination plant in Carlsbad, the largest in North America. As <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/us-news\/climate-environment\/san-diego-now-has-so-much-water-that-its-selling-it-527186fb?st=8rA1iY&amp;reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the Wall Street Journal reports<\/a> in a story shared by Executive Editor Will Doig, Arizona and Nevada are hoping to swap water access rights with San Diego \u2014 meaning that in exchange for funding the water generated by the Carlsbad plant, those states would get to take San Diego\u2019s share of Colorado River water.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8336 alignleft\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"will doig\" width=\"101\" height=\"135\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AuthorPhoto.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Will says:<\/p>\n<p>Desalination has drawbacks (it\u2019s an energy suck, for one, though new technologies are making it more sustainable) but with California facing a parched summer after a very dry winter, this kind of arrangement could help stave off a crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what\u2019s getting our team talking. Tell us what you\u2019ve been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,3335,48,6091,26204,66,11547,16580,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-621965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-drought","12":"tag-oceans","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-water","15":"tag-whales","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}