Sperm whales learned to avoid harpoons and taught skills to others

Sperm whales learned to avoid harpoons after hunting for them 200 years ago, according to a new study.

Released by the Royal Society on Wednesday, the research was based on newly digitized logbooks of American whalers, which recorded details of their North Pacific expeditions during the 19th century, such as the number of whales spotted or speared.

Although they are in great demand for their whalebones, ivory and fat, and nearly 80,000 “travel days” have been recorded, there have only been 2,405 successful whale sightings – a rate only 3% success rate.

Study authors, cetacean researchers Professor Hal Whitehead and Dr Luke Rendell, as well as data scientist Dr Tim D Smith also found that the strike rate of whalers’ harpoons had dropped. 58% in less than two and a half years after they started hunting in the area.

In Halifax, Canada, Professor Whitehead from Dalhousie University said The Owen Sun Sound Times: “It was very remarkable. I thought there might be a drop, but not that much and not so fast.

“Usually you would expect it to increase as they find out about things and become more efficient. This is generally how our exploitation of wildlife goes. We become more efficient as we learn to do it. to do.”

The study concluded that the sperm whales learned how they were killed, shared this information with their group and changed their behavior accordingly, displaying a “cultural shift.”

The species live with their children in pods or groups reserved for women, which allows them to form close bonds and share tips for evading hunters.

The hunters recognized that the sperm whales had developed tactics to escape them. Instead of forming defensive squares used to combat their natural predators, orcas, sperm whales, realized that swimming against the wind would allow them to outrun the ships of wind hunters.

The advent of steam and grenade harpoons in the later years of the 19th century, however, meant that even the discreet sperm whale was doomed to mass slaughter.

“It was a cultural evolution, far too fast for a genetic evolution,” says Whitehead.

Sperm whales have the largest brains of any animal on the planet and the researchers pointed out that if they were able to adapt 200 years ago, they could probably also face the challenges of the ocean today. .

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

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