Sperm whales’ clicking dialects are evidence of ‘non human culture,’ say scientists

Sperm whales, the largest toothed animal in the world, use series of Morse-code-like clicks, known as "codas," to communicate.

In the dark depths of the Pacific Ocean, there are a lot of conversations going on.

Click-click-click-click-click. That’s the sound of a sperm whale.

Click-click-click-click, pause, click. That’s a sperm whale that lives in the same area but is from a different group.

Sperm whales, the largest toothed animal in the world and easily recognized by their huge, rounded foreheads, use series of Morse-code-like clicks, known as “codas,” to communicate.

Scientists now say in a new study that variations in the whales’ clicking dialects are evidence of “non-human culture” and provide a way for whale groups to mark cultural identity when clans overlap, in a similar way to human ethnic groups.

The study published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences involved a team of 27 scientists from Halifax and Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

Dr. Taylor Hersh, the paper’s lead author and PhD graduate from Dalhousie University’s biology department, said in a news release the work “was the culmination of decades of research efforts by individuals working throughout the Pacific Ocean.”

“We decided to share data and work collaboratively, to learn something new about these enigmatic, charismatic and cultural animals,” said Hersh.