A new study has heightened scientistsSA国际影视传媒� understanding of beluga families, but itSA国际影视传媒檚 also deepened the mystery of this animalSA国际影视传媒檚 intelligence SA国际影视传媒� and culture.
SA国际影视传媒淯sing genetic fingerprinting over decades of time, we've actually managed to establish that, not only do whales come back to the same area year after year, decade after decade, (but) the same whales do and their relatives also do,SA国际影视传媒� says Gregory OSA国际影视传媒機orry-Crowe, a lead writer of a research article published March 22 that suggested beluga whales have a SA国际影视传媒渕igratory culture.SA国际影视传媒�
What SA国际影视传媒渃ultureSA国际影视传媒� means in this respect is that families are communicating among themselves and passing along knowledge of where they feed and breed, and that they either travel together to these places or meet up there.
Despite few natural barriers and overlapping migration routes, the groups of beluga whales that the researchers examined tended to stick with their own in the long run.
OSA国际影视传媒機orry-Crowe says this culture might be rooted in the whalesSA国际影视传媒� childhoods. Beluga whale calves remain dependent on their mothers for two or more years, and thus travel with their mothers for multiple migration cycles.
SA国际影视传媒淭hese whales likely formed lifelong associations with close kin, close relatives that was probably driven in large part by the critical need to navigate the challenges of a very difficult environment in order to get to certain key areas at certain times of the year,SA国际影视传媒� he says.
There are various ways animals learn where they need to go, says OSA国际影视传媒機orry-Crowe: some have to figure it out themselves, and many get unlucky; some follow the crowd every year, and hope they picked the right crowd; and some, like the belugas, may watch and learn from their relatives who know what theySA国际影视传媒檙e doing, and then pass that long to their other kin.
OSA国际影视传媒機orry-Crowe thinks some of this information is likely conferred by watching-and-learning, but he noted that beluga whales also seem to communicate vocally.
SA国际影视传媒淲e know they have incredibly diverse vocal repertoires,SA国际影视传媒� he says.
Despite their predilection for family, beluga whales arenSA国际影视传媒檛 antisocial. They spend almost all their time travelling around, groups splinter up and rejoin, and gatherings of thousands of beluga whales are commonly seen in coastal areas. And while itSA国际影视传媒檚 difficult to tell what constitutes territory in the three-dimensional underwater ecosystem, they havenSA国际影视传媒檛 been seen to get territorial with others.
SA国际影视传媒淲hen you combine that flexible grouping pattern with what we're learning about relationships SA国际影视传媒� actual kinship SA国际影视传媒� and how sophisticated their vocal communication abilities are, you can envision a situation where they're capable of forming these very complex societies that don't necessitate everybody being together all the time.SA国际影视传媒�
A big take-away from this study is the question, which OSA国际影视传媒機orry-Crowe hopes will be examined in further years, of how having a culture will affect belugasSA国际影视传媒� adaptation to a changing Arctic: Will it mean they stay set in their ways, or will this culture be dynamic and actually help spread life-saving adaptations?
SA国际影视传媒淚s culture a liberator? Or is it a captor?SA国际影视传媒� he asks.
SA国际影视传媒淎re they going to be held hostage to culture or is the ability to learn and acquire an incredibly large amount of information in an efficient way (going to help them)?SA国际影视传媒�
OSA国际影视传媒機orry-Crowe is going to be back in Inuvik this week, and says that the partnerships U.S. researchers have made with the Canadian government, the GNWT and the Inuvialuit have helped get the research this far and will help bring it farther. Lois Harwood, with Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Yellowknife, helped write and research the article.
