{"id":492778,"date":"2026-06-24T05:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T05:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/492778\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T05:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T05:38:08","slug":"different-sperm-whale-dialects-detected-on-separate-sides-of-the-mediterranean-whales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/492778\/","title":{"rendered":"Different sperm whale \u2018dialects\u2019 detected on separate sides of the Mediterranean | Whales"},"content":{"rendered":"

From \u201cHowdy\u201d to \u201cG\u2019day\u201d, English \u2013 like other languages \u2013 is rich in dialects. Now researchers have found sperm whales on different sides of the Mediterranean show similar variations in their vocalisations.<\/p>\n

Sperm whales communicate vocally using sequences of short clicks called codas. However, the rhythmic pattern of these clicks, known as the dialect, can differ between different matriarchal groups.<\/p>\n

Crucially, one group of sperm whales will only associate with another if they share the same dialect and hence belong to the same \u201cvocal clan\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dialect is used to form social structures, within which these animals will cooperate,\u201d said Dr Luke Rendell, of the University of St Andrews and a co-author of the new study, noting similarities in how humans might be more comfortable striking up a conversation with someone who sounds similar to themselves.<\/p>\n

Now Rendell and colleagues say they have discovered two different dialects among Mediterraean sperm whales \u2013 a small, endangered population of a few thousand individuals that are thought to have first entered these waters about 20,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, they say the finding offers new insights into how sperm whale dialects arise.<\/p>\n

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B<\/a>, the team note genetic studies have previously suggested Mediterranean sperm whales have become isolated from other sperm whales. There are also signs that mating between those in the western and eastern Mediterranean basins is restricted, although individuals have been spotted moving between the two.<\/p>\n

In the new study the researchers analysed hydrophone recordings of groups of Mediterranean sperm whales made over 112 days between 2003 and 2021. These were recorded around the Hellenic Trench near Greece in the eastern Mediterranean and around the Balearic Islands, off the coast of Spain in the western basin.<\/p>\n

While the team found some codas were largely confined to either eastern or western groups, they found in both areas most sperm whale codas involved four clicks.<\/p>\n

However, while whales in the western Mediterranean basin favoured a 3+1 coda involving three regularly spaced clicks followed by a longer pause, then another click, those in the eastern basin tended to use a faster version. But there was crossover, with sperm whales in the eastern basin occasionally producing the western dialect.<\/p>\n

Rendell said the findings suggested sperm whales first established themselves in the western basin of the Mediterranean before spreading eastwards and developing a faster dialect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whales in the east remember the old ways, but they\u2019re moving on and they\u2019ve got a slightly different version of what is clearly the same [general type of coda], but they\u2019ve evolved it a little bit; they\u2019ve changed it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rendell added that the results not only showed the process of dialect formation was slow, but that it required some level of isolation between populations \u2013 something the authors note is also important in the cultural evolution of human languages and birdsong dialects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first example we\u2019ve got where we can look at a snapshot and think: \u2018Oh, this seems to be telling us about how new dialects come about\u2019,\u201d Rendell said. \u201cWe just knew there were these different dialects, but we\u2019ve never seen the origin or had any clues into the origin of them. And we see here how a group of sperm whales that\u2019s split off from a main population has now started to change its dialect as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From \u201cHowdy\u201d to \u201cG\u2019day\u201d, English \u2013 like other languages \u2013 is rich in dialects. Now researchers have found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-492778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}