Humpback Whales Learn New Fishing Techniques Through Socialization

A new study is showing that Humpback Whales may be learning brand new behaviors from each other using socialization, a development which could alter the way scientists view the whales population and prove how remarkably smart the cetaceans can be. This study, done by University of St. Andrews marine biologist Luke Rendell using data collected from 1980 to 2007 by observers for the Whale Center of New England, showed that humpback whales were able to learn to dramatically change they way they gathered food, and learned these new techniques from other whales.

Humpback whales had previously used a technique called bubble net feeding to catch herring. This would require using bubbles to trap a large group of herring together, so that a humpback whale could sweep in and eat many of the fish at once with minimal effort. However, when the population of herring in the Stellwagen Area near Boston began to decline dramatically, the whales began adopting a new method of catching fish. The whales now primarily catch sand lances by slapping the water with their tails before diving and creating their bubble net.

Yet, what really fascinated the scientists studying this phenomenon is that, if one whale learned this new technique called lobtail feeding, other whales in the social group would also learn and adopt it as well, indicating to scientists that the whales learned through socialization. Now marine biologists estimate that 40 percent of the whales in the observe region have adopted this lobtail technique for getting food.

However, this study does have some opponents. Some claim that the study is based on insufficient data because it relied only on observations and no other scientific means. This scientists believe that the whales happened to learn the exact same technique as each other at roughly the same time, through random chance.

The full study of the St. Andrews team is available in the newest edition of Science Magazine.

Thanks to: Science Recorder