Once upon a time, I studied humpback whales. My old research buddy, Adam Frankel, still does. Specifically, he is still studying whale song. I know this not because he told me, but because I just came across a Science News article with a quote from him. Quotes Adam,
[Danielle Cholewiak, a researcher for the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary based in Massachusettes,] "showed short-term acoustic interactions between males—that was the new thing."
This "new thing" is the finding that male humpbacks may respond to the vocalizations of other male humpbacks by changing their song. Which means that the old postulation about the purpose of whale song being advertisment for virility (i.e., reproductive fitness) is one line of evidence closer to validation.
What birds have to do with it is the fact that humpback song and bird song share similar characteristics. Their songs all have repeated notes, called phrases, which are arranged in themes. Bird researchers have been able to correlate song patterns with specific behaviors. Not so with whales. Still, borrowing the methodologies used by bird researchers has proven helpful in cracking the whale song enigma.
