Marine scientists have launched an appeal asking wildlife enthusiasts for help in decoding the secrets of whale song in a global "crowdsourcing" experiment.
Experts in the UK and north America are asking "citizen scientists" to study and sift through about 15,000 recordings of calls by pilot whales and killer whales around the planet, to see if new phrases, meanings and dialects can be uncovered.
The Whale Project, launched on Tuesday by Scientific American and the online citizen science organisation The Zooniverse, is similar to the first major attempt to use crowdsourcing by amateur astronomers to help discover new galaxies by studying images taken by the Hubble space telescope in July 2007.
Participants visiting whale.fm will be asked to study and then compare the sound wave patterns, or spectograms, of calls made by whales in different pods and families of whales around the world.
They will be asked to identify identical or very similar sound wave patterns, and will be able to play back each sound excerpt to help them match segments. Every sound recording is linked to a specific location in the sea, or geotagged, allowing scientists to precisely place clusters of calls in the areas where specific families of whale are known to inhabit.
Prof Ian Boyd, one of the project's collaborators from the University of St Andrews' sea mammal research unit, said scientists had discovered that people were often naturally much more able than computers to see similarities in complex spectograms.
"The first thing we want them to do is compare the images because what the human brain is very, very good at doing is comparing images, and is much better than a computer," Boyd said. "For someone like me who's tone deaf, who isn't very good at telling sounds apart, we're very, very good at making distinctions between small changes in shapes and objects."
He said pilot and killer whales had very complex calls or repertoires. Marine scientists now wanted to investigate the differences in each group's calls, like a dialect, and whether they could discover different kinds of messages from analysing these calls.
"If these animals have some form of linguistics or language tradition, we're wanting to try to find the words within that repertoire of sounds. We don't know what they mean but what we do find is they have different lexicons; different groups have different types of sound, and they probably inherit these sounds from their parents," he said.
"It's like a dialect. We want to be able to compare them; both these species have such complex sorts of sounds, and some of these sounds are repeated again, again and again. So they are not random."
Every matched group of sounds would be compared with the whales' location and activities that the whales were involved in. "We want to try and take that back to the context where they're produced, such as hunting or social situations."
Scientific American has previously run "citizen science" projects to track dragonfly swarms, the Gulf oil spill and a "great sunflower project", recording their observations of the natural world. Mariette DiChristina, the editor in chief, said: "One doesn't need a science degree to be a citizen scientist. All you need is a curiosity about the world around you and an interest in observing, measuring and reporting what you hear and see."
Comments
29 November 2011 5:05PM
After a long and thorough analysis, i finally found out what the whales were singing:
"never gonna give you up
never gonna let you down
never gonna run around
and desert you..."
29 November 2011 5:24PM
A Great idea.
About time that we stupid humans acknowledged that our planetary neighbours are busily signalling away.
We just havent been bright enough to understand this.
Humans are particularly poor trans-species liguists.
For example, Chico the German dog has a demonstrable human vocabulary of 200 terms.
What 'intelligent' human can show a similar 200 term vocabulary of dog-lish?
Similarly Alex, the African grey parrot linguist, who collaborated in trans-species linguistics with Dr Irene Pepperberg. He was able to count and show recognition of substances and colours. He had a vocabulary of about 150 terms in humanglish.
What human can come anywhere near to this in parrot-glish?
Oh, how stupid and arrogant we are
29 November 2011 5:42PM
Kind of hope they fail.
I always loved this quote from Douglas Adams...
29 November 2011 5:45PM
"whale meat again....."
29 November 2011 5:46PM
great idea ...do you think we could do the same with geordies.....
29 November 2011 6:04PM
DavidSouthAfrican,
Humans are not so stupid, we have known for a while that whales and other animals signal, and now we are using our cleverness to try to work out what they are saying. How many whales are busy trying to work out human language do you think?
The dog doesn't really understand English. Dogs don't speak a human-like language, so there isn't a 200 word vocabulary of Doglish for us to learn.
The parrot doesn't really understand English either.
29 November 2011 7:13PM
The killer whale, or Orca, is actually a dolphin.
29 November 2011 7:34PM
If humans aren't stupid, why are we on the verge of eliminating just about all the fish in the sea through overfishing, habitat modification/destruction, bycatching etc. etc.
29 November 2011 7:55PM
I'm not sure I'm stupid or arrogant. I got an 'A' in my physics O-level and never told a soul...
29 November 2011 8:32PM
You've illustrated this piece with a picture of an Orca...which is NOT a whale, but a dolphin.
Good start.
29 November 2011 8:47PM
So what? As you've brilliantly pointed out the picture is indeed of an Orca otherwise known as a killer whale.
The article clearly states that the new project aims to find new phrases meanings and dialects amongst pilot and killer whales.
Therefore in my opinion picturing a killer whale seems appropriate.
29 November 2011 9:27PM
Why do you think Whales have dialects, rather than different languages? Humans across Europe have languages mostly based on latin, which are not understood by 95% of the population of Europe. In Britain, Glaswegians, Scouses and Devonians can hardly speak to each other, let alone comunicate with a Russian or Japanese. Do we expect different pods of whales living all over the globe to be any different to us?
The thought to utilize many people to analyse whale sounds is good, but should be restricted to pods and their close neighbours not on a world wide basis.
Rodge34.
29 November 2011 9:28PM
Actually, orcas and dolphins are both odontocetes, or toothed whales. Nothing wrong with the above photograph.
29 November 2011 9:53PM
We need to learn as much as we can about wildlife and marine life, before it's too late.
In Canada's far Arctic, Polar Bears are certainly in danger as, the far north is melting far too quickly. The Polar Bears need ice to catch seals and what not for food. Because the icebergs are melting away, bears have had to swim for 426 miles, to get to an iceberg, to hunt seals. Nine days a polar bear had to swim. The baby polar bears die, because they can't swim that far. However, try and get that into greedy and stupid politicians heads.
When one of the immense Chinese oil tankers has a spill, out of Port Kitimat, BC. That's where our beautiful Orka and Humpback whales live. There are thousands of marine life species in the Douglas Channel. People come from all over the world, travel to see these Whales. Also off the Channel, is where our famous Spirit Bears live, also the unique small wolves live there too. The Rain Forest is full of wild life, song birds and many wildlife creatures. Thousands of people come to Bear watch as well. Of course, the lunatic government wants to open hunting on those bears. Pays pretty good money to the greedy government though, and that's all that counts.
The filthy diseased fish farms, are killing our wild salmon. Of course, money comes first and our asinine governments, could care less about our wild salmon. The Fist nations People depend on the salmon to feed their people. It's a sight to behold, watching the bears and eagles, fishing for salmon. There were 61 bears shot in BC this summer, because their food supply was dwindled down, they came to towns to eat humans garbage. Wild animals always lose, against stupid humans. The Bears can't shoot back.
The seas of port Kitimat are one of the most treacherous in the world. It's a northern port, and has immense storms, wind warnings of over 100 kms an hour. Waves are high enough at times, to wash up as high as the roof tops of houses. The channel is narrow, and the tankers are huge. difficult to navigate in good weather, let alone constant stormy weather on that northern coast.
The Enbridge pipeline, will come across, thousands of rivers, streams and lands through a vast wilderness. There are avalanches, mud slides and rock slides. BC has earthquakes all over the place. To find the pipe burst in the vast Canadian wilderness, can take days to find. The tar oil is like a hockey puck. The chemicals to make to oil flow freely, are lethal. The chemicals so corrosive, the pipes become fragile and burst..
The Whales are probably communicating to each other, to watch out for the stupid brain dead humans, they are at it again. They are trying to poison us to death.
29 November 2011 10:36PM
http://nbchardballtalk.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/rage-wtf.jpg?w=236
29 November 2011 10:42PM
Meadowlark
'In Canada's far Arctic, Polar Bears are certainly in danger as'
which why their numbers have been going up for years and you can still a license to shoot them , meanwhile by far the biggest threat to polar bears cubs is... adult male polar bears when its comes to the saying 'nature is red in tooth and crawl' polar bears really give that meaning .
29 November 2011 11:32PM
Sorry, the parrots do understand what words mean. On a TV channel, called Animal Planet, they were astounded by how intelligent parrots really are. I was surprised while watching that channel, just how smart crows are. I also watched on that channel, an octopus unscrewed the lid of a jar, to get the prey that was inside the jar.
As far as dogs. I was surprised, I wasn't to say the word time, around my sons dogs. When the dogs would pester for food, they would say, it isn't time. So to the dogs, they associated the word time, with food. You can't say dog park. You can't say the word Cedar, that's the unleashed dog park. My daughter-in-law, took the dogs to the fenced dog park. The big dog refused to get out of the car. So she took the dogs to Cedar park, the big dog jumped out of the car, in a flash. One evening, the younger dog was pestering my son to death. My son told the dog to get his harness. When they got outside he told the dog, show me where you want to go. The dog took him to the beer store, that's where the dogs often get a piece of beef jerky.
I and extended family were moving to a new town. As houses sold, we all ended up in mine. My son as I said had dogs, I had a cat.. I was hearing a dog whinging, I called out and asked what was wrong with the dog? My daughter-in-law said, the cats in the pathway and won't let the dog by. I'm thinking, shes just a little cat. The cat was blamed for chasing one of the dogs around the kitchen, trying to swat him. She was blamed for standing in the doorway and not allowing the dogs in the house. She was accused of sitting by the water bowl, and not letting the dogs have a drink. The cat was blamed, for stealing the dogs beds. I finally said to my daughter-in-law. She's just a dumb little cat, that catches mice. She insisted the cat did all of this on purpose. I said nothing more. THEN ONE DAY. My daughter-in-laws mom, was in the laundry room. That's also where the basement stairs were. My son was getting the dogs food bowl ready. The cat went into the laundry and positioned herself, just around the corner of the steps. The cat swatted each dog as they came tearing by for their food, startling the dogs which caused them to slip on the floor and sat them on their butts. I was in disbelief, the cat planned her ambushes. She was ruling the dogs, with an iron paw. I started to watch the cat. She did absolutely everything she could think of, to upset the dogs.
My son and family, live out of town on five acres. My daughter-in-law was having a non stop battle with a squirrel. He/she would store the pine cones, and what not in the bird feeder. This plugged the feeder and the seeds couldn't get through. The squirrel learned how to open the roof of the bird feeder. She cut a milk jug in half, and put his stash in that. The squirrel scolded and chattered. The squirrel moved them right back in the bird feeder. After a running battle, my daughter-in-law put his stash in the milk jug, and moved the feeder to another tree. The squirrel moved his stash over to the other tree, where the feeder was.
There is a u-tube video, called an owl and her cat, too funny for words. There is another video of twin baby moose playing in a lawn sprinkler. I was shocked the mother moose took her calves, so close to human habitat. They usually keep their calves as secrete as they can. But there they were, mother wasn't the least bit worried.
The citizens of British Columbia, love our wildlife creatures, and will fight to save our Whales and the critters of our forests. We are in a battle to save our wild salmon. Our wildlife is far more important to the people than, our brain dead politicians ever could be.
England has the most corrupt wildlife offender, right there in London. Gordon Campbell is the High Commissioner to England. He is a liar, thief, is corrupt, and cheated to win, two different elections. He is so despised, he wouldn't even come to BC. There was quite the welcoming committee waiting for him. What a pity he missed it.
30 November 2011 12:12AM
Any chance we could do the same study for off-shore call centres?
30 November 2011 1:42AM
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30 November 2011 5:45AM
GUIMARD
"which is why their (polar bears) numbers have been going up for years."
There are 19 recognised subpopulations of polar bears. For seven of them there is not yet enough data to draw any conclusions. One is actually increasing, three are stable and eight are in decline. This is why, despite lobbying from oil companies who wish to further harm their environment and companies who profit from hunting, they still receive some protection under the US endangered species act.
My source is the IUCN polar bear specialist group. What is yours? Is it Sarah Pailin on Fox News or some bloke down the pub?
I understand the motivation of hunters and oil companies but people like you baffle me.
30 November 2011 8:12AM
If they've got any sense they'll be saying 'Piss off people'.
30 November 2011 10:06AM
It's pretty obvious what they're saying:
Hee hoo, hooo hee hoo?
Hmm, hoo heee hooohooo. hooo heee hooo?
Hmmmm.....
30 November 2011 10:11AM
So dogs can understand us and we can;t understand them? If I spent my life living with dogs and never seeing humans I reckon I'd be able to communicate with them quite well. There were two kids, Romulous and Remus that managed quite well with Wolves, so legend suggests.
The fact that animals display some intelligence is no reason to doubt our own intellegence.
In addition the logical and responsible actions of individuals are not to be confused with the natural growth of a species. Any species will expand until its resources are met and exceeded, and as a species humans are particularly efficient at exploiting resources, at the expense of other species. That is not the sign of stupidity, if you applied success criteria of population growth and diversity of habitat that are applied to bacteria you'd say we're a pretty unsuccessful animal.
Given how little time we spend with whales and how little we are able to observe their behaviour to get any context of their communication its not that surprising we have not yet deciphered their meaning. This project sounds like a good starting point to start organising whale language to start to decipher it, given we can't live with a group of whales 24/7 for a few years.
But don't they speak welsh?
30 November 2011 10:17AM
I learnt wale years ago, when I freed one from a water park, he jumped over me on the way out it was very touching, and after he tought me wale as a thank you.
After listening to the tapes I can tell you they are all saying..
FENTON!! FENTON!!! FENTON!!! Jesus Christ!!! FENTON
30 November 2011 1:53PM
Perhaps they are wailing for their comrades slaughtered by the Japanese, Norwegians, Icelanders, Indonesians, Inuit - and all the other barbarians.
It's no use appealing to the WWF because they have stated that if whaling becomes under international supervision they will support it. Conservationists are barbarians too.
30 November 2011 1:54PM
If we could understand them, and they asked us to stop killing whales and other species and to stop polluting the ocean with chemicals, plastics, and high energy sonar what would we do then?
30 November 2011 3:49PM
Nuke the whales.
Dunno, gotta nuke something...
30 November 2011 4:47PM
No, they don't. Parrots don't have the same semantic understanding of language that humans do.
1 December 2011 9:13PM
So Long, and thanks for all the fish.
Or was that the Dolphins?
2 December 2011 12:13AM
If the Whales and Dolphins were smart while are they not fighting back, developed rockets, space ship, computers, satelites, building a LHC.