Sperm whales taught each other how to avoid harpoons after their hunt started 200 years ago, according to a new study.
Published by the Royal Society on Wednesday, the survey was based on recently digitized logbooks of American whalers, who recorded details of their North Pacific expeditions during the 19th century, such as the number of whales spotted or harpooned.
Although there was a high demand for whale bones, ivory and fat and almost 80,000 ‘travel days’ recorded, there were only 2,405 whale sightings, a success rate of a mere 3%.
The study authors, cetacean researchers Professor Hal Whitehead and Dr. Luke Rendell, as well as data scientist Dr. Tim D Smith, also found that the whaling harpoon attack rate dropped 58 percent in less than two years and half after they started hunting in the region.
In Halifax, Canada, Professor Whitehead at Dalhousie University said The Owen Sun Sound Times: “That was very remarkable. I thought there could be a drop, but not too much and not so fast.
“Typically, you expect it to increase as they discover things and become more successful. This is how our wildlife exploration takes place. We become more efficient as we learn to do so.”
The study concluded that sperm whales learned how they were being killed, shared this information with their group and changed their behavior accordingly, exhibiting “cultural evolution”.
The species lives with its children in groups or exclusively female groups, allowing them to form close ties and share tips to escape from hunters.
Hunters recognized that sperm whales have developed tactics to avoid them. Instead of forming defensive squares used to fight against their natural predators, the killer whale, sperm whales, understood that swimming against the wind would allow them to overtake wind-powered hunter ships.
The advent of steam power and grenade harpoons in the last years of the 19th century meant that even the astute sperm whale was doomed to mass slaughter, however.
“This was a cultural evolution, very fast for genetic evolution,” says Whitehead.
Sperm whales have the largest brain of any animal on the planet and the researchers pointed out that if they were able to adapt 200 years ago, they probably could also face the challenges of the ocean today.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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