Research shows humpback whales can learn songs from their neighbours. 

A new study has found that humpback whales in the South Pacific learn songs from their eastern neighbours and this eastward spread of songs starts off the coast of Australia and spreads all the way through to Ecuador.

Male humpback whales sing a repetitive, stereotyped, socially learnt, and culturally transmitted song display. 

Most males within a population sing the same, slow-evolving song type; but in the South Pacific, song ‘revolutions’ have led to rapid and complete replacement of one song type by another introduced from a neighbouring population.

The researchers found that songs recorded in 2016–2018 in French Polynesia matched songs sung in Ecuador in 2018, and the song type could be traced back as far as Tonga in the western South Pacific. 

They say this suggests that humpback whales are connected vocally across the entire South Pacific Ocean basin. 

More information is accessible here.