The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins

The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins

Rating

7.5

The Pequod Review:

The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins is a fascinating book, mostly due to the sheer number of examples the authors provide to show how whales and dolphins use advanced communication skills to develop their own distinct cultures — through vocal patterns/songs, social hierarchies, hunting methods, and other shared information. The book's thesis came about when Hal Whitehead was studying sperm whales in the Galapagos and realized that two groups of whales behaved quite differently from one another despite being of the same species. His later research into humpback whales showed that their song patterns evolved every few months and that the songs spread from west to east across thousands of miles; “there is no way even the most outlandish scenarios can explain this pattern with genetics alone.” Written with Luke Rendell.