Whales communicate with a 'language-like' structure similar to humans
Across just a few weeks, complex, never-before-heard melodies sung by humpback whales can spread across thousands of kilometres of oceans. A new study, published in Science today, has found these whale songs share fundamental structural similarities with human language, showing that certain linguistic laws are not unique to humans. "We did a very meticulous deep dive into humpback whale song," said Jenny Allen, a researcher in whale behaviour at Griffith University in Australia and the University of St Andrews in Scotland. "The researchers nicely illustrate that whale song shares the same statistical structure as human language," Professor King said. " However, Youngblood and Whiten also note that humpback whale songs arguably provide "the most compelling case to date" that the structural similarities are due to learned behaviours.
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