Humpback whales have long been admired for their intelligence, and their behaviour around other marine creatures has been extensively observed and documented.
In particular, the whales’ habit of teaming up to blow bubbles and form a ring around a school of small fish to ‘corral’ them and make feeding easier. This hunting collaboration has raised interesting speculation about the nature of communication between team members.
In 2021, a team of scientists from the SETI Institute conducted what was termed a ‘conversation’ with a single humpback named Twain. This consisted of playing whale calls through an underwater speaker that Twain responded to with similar calls.
Later, in a 2024 study by the same group, whale calls made during bubble feeding events, originally thought to be random and purposeless apart, perhaps, from being a way to keep in touch with other members of the
We don’t just report the news, we deliver it through the voices of multiple expert staff writers, each selected to broaden our scope and deepen our storytelling.
