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Sperm whales

We’re pushing governments for action for our climate heroes – whales

The climate crisis is the greatest threat to all life on Earth. But there is...
Dolphins captured for captivity in Taiji. Image: Hans Peter Roth

Loved and killed – whales and dolphins in Japan

Protests and criticism from outside Japan in response to the slaughter of whales and dolphins...
Narwhal with beluga whales

Unusual Whale Adoptions

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Irrawaddy dolphin

Helping fishers protect dolphins in Sarawak, Borneo

Fishing nets are bad news for dolphins and porpoises, so we're working with local fishers...
Dolphin watching from Chanonry Point, Scotland. Image: WDC/Charlie Phillips

Discovering inner peace – whale and dolphin watching and mental wellbeing

Guest blog If you've ever seen whales or dolphins in the wild, you'll know that...
Whale tail

An ocean of hope

In a monumental, jaw-dropping demonstration of global community, the nations of the world made history...
North Atlantic right whale Porcia and her calf.

Critically Endangered Right Whale Babies Spotted

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The infamous killing cove at Taiji, Japan

Why the Taiji dolphin hunt can never be justified

Supporters of the dolphin slaughter in Japan argue that killing a few hundred dolphins every...

Sperm whale cultural turn-over: moving on out

Decades of research on sperm whales in the Pacific has revealed a most remarkable social event.  Researchers have documented the large-scale relocation of cultural groups of sperm whales off the Galápagos Islands.

Sperm whale clans can be differentiated by their unique click patterns, or codas. Researchers have been visiting the waters around the Galapagos over the course of several decades. They found that two vocal clans that had been observed in these waters between 1985 and 1999 (known as the Regular and Plus-One clans), were starting to decline during the 1990s. By 2000 none of these whales were being sighted in this area.

When they went back to reassess these same waters in 2013-14 they identified 436 females. However, much to their surprise none of these whales matched the photo-ID records for the 1985-1999 population and instead the codas of these whales matched the repertoire of two completely separate clans (known as the Short and Plus-Four). These clans had been sighted in various locations around the Pacific, but never before around the Galapagos.

In essence they discovered that the two original vocal clans inhabiting these waters had been replaced by whales from two other clans.

The researchers acknowledge that the ultimate cause of this cultural turn-over remain unclear, but postulate that changes in the environment that may favour clans that feed on different prey types or that redistribution of surviving whales into higher quality habitats following heavy whaling in the region, may have played a role.

Whatever the mechanism behind these dramatic shifts in habitat between cultural groups, this is further evidence that to conserve sperm whales effectively requires tracking their populations as cultural units.