Study
Sperm whale codas
Watkins, William A.; Schevill, William E.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1977
Sperm whale vocalisations were recorded at sea with hydrophone arrays that allowed individual callers to be separated, and the patterned click sequences produced during social contact were described and classified for the first time.
- Studied in
- Physeter macrocephalus
- Sample size
- recordings from wild sperm whale groups
Sperm whales produce stereotyped, patterned sequences of clicks — named codas — distinct from the regular clicking used for echolocation. Codas are exchanged between animals in social contexts, often overlapping or alternating, and individual whales repeat particular patterns.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Codas are a category of social vocalisation distinct in structure and context from foraging clicks.
How NatureHQ reads it
The founding observation for everything that followed, and the distinction it draws is the one to hold on to: a sperm whale's ordinary clicking is a sonar pulse train aimed at finding squid, and a coda is a short rhythmic pattern produced while socialising. Confusing the two is the commonest error in popular coverage — the enormous source levels people quote belong to the echolocation clicks, and the "conversations" belong to the codas, which are far quieter. Almost fifty years on, the classification here is still the basis of the field.
- Early recordings with limited ability to attribute calls to identified individuals.
- Small number of groups, in a limited geographic area.
- Description of structure carries no information about function or meaning.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
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Published by: University press journalsPublished in a university press journal.
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