How does whale communication work? - David Gruber and Shane Gero

Explore how sperm whales use an array of complex vocalizations to communicate with each other, hunt, and assess their surroundings.

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Soon after whaling ships began operating in the North Pacific, an interesting trend emerged. Within just a few years, whalers saw a 58% drop in their successful strikes. Sperm whales had suddenly become harder to kill— they had begun fleeing the boats instead of forming their usual defensive circles. Were whales communicating new strategies to each other? David Gruber and Shane Gero investigate.

Lesson by David Gruber and Shane Gero, directed by Anna Benner.

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Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Francisco Amaya, Daisuke Goto, Matt Switzler, Peng, Tzu-Hsiang, Bethany Connor, Jeremy Shimanek, Mark Byers, Avinash Amarnath, Xuebicoco, Rayo, Po Foon Kwong, Boffin, Jesse Jurman, Scott Markley, Elija Peterson, Ovidiu Mrd, paul g mohney, Steven Razey, Nathan Giusti, Helen Lee, Anthony Benedict, Karthik Balsubramanian, Annastasshia Ames, Amy Lopez, Vinh-Thuy Nguyen, Liz Candee, Ugur Doga Sezgin, Karmi Nguyen, John C. Vesey, Yelena Baykova, Nick Johnson, Carlos H. Costa, Jennifer Kurkoski, Ryan B Harvey, Akinola Emmanuel, Jose Arcadio Valdes Franco, Sebastiaan Vleugels, Karl Laius, JY Kang, Abhishek Goel, Heidi Stolt, Nicole Sund, Karlee Finch, Mario Mejia, Denise A Pitts, Doug Henry, Keven Webb, Mihai Sandu, Deepak Iyer and Javid Gozalov.

[ilertargenthorne]

It's amazing how much we tend to underestimate the intelligence of animals.

[thaisgregorio]

The idea of a baby whale babbling is just too cute 😊

[Sunflowersarepretty]

So like these whales have their own cultures? If they have their own languages and dialects they are complex beings. Truly Fascinating creatures.

[terramater]

Our crew talked to people who work off the coast of Dominica, and we shed light on how the CETI, a major research project, works on methods first developed for exploring outer space that could help us decode whale communication.

[KnowledgeCat]

It’s truly eye-opening to realize just how intelligent animals are. This video brilliantly highlights that we often underestimate their cognitive abilities. Amazing content!

[DebshankarPathak-hbtf]

Thank you Ted Ed for bringing forth such a fascinating system in nature !

[nsa_]

Didn’t realise Whales are so sophisticated & fascinating creatures. Amazing video from Ted-ed ❤

[lukemateo]

They were able to communicate what a ship looks like to some that might have never seen one before and give specific instructions on what to do to escape 😮 how are people not freaking out about this that is literally language

[DrFalguniMehta]

we humans underestimate the intelligence of such beautiful creatures so thoroughly

[MrsJudithWright]

Fascinating - from the perfect quote in the begging all the way through. I learned so much.

[ljvillegas]

Truly Amazed on how these animals 'work'

[CharlotteXMoon]

I didn't know they can use clicking as a way to count with each other! That's so BRILLIANT!

[sacredyveltal]

This is such a interesting topic! The hand drawn animation style reminds me of the game South Scrimshaw 🐋 Amazing job

[notfunny]

The quotes at the beginning of these videos just keep getting better.

I used to identify them as quotes from book spines i saw at the 'old books' section at the library.

Now its movie references from movies i watched as a kid.

Funny to think that a kid that watched that movie as 10 year old is now 30 years old. Wild.

Our movies might ine day be remembered the way we remember of books like huckleberry finn

[lucianoosorio]

“We need to find his son. Can you give us directions? Come back!” Dory

[Kang_Hee-ri]

I hope we will be able to talk to these giants in our lifetime.

[Mystixor]

It would be so amazing to find yet another animal we can communicate with on a fairly advanced language level

[agentjp]

I hope that one day we can not only understand them, but try to communicate back. That would be so surreal but so cool

[LittleMew]

Ted Ed is giving me answers to questions I could have never came up with.

[sudeepnayak]

Very informative video people who are eager to learn more about animals.