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Sperm Whales Produce Vowel Patterns Like Human Speech
Researchers found vowel- and diphthong-like patterns in sperm whale clicks, suggesting complex communication; analysis included about 9,000 codas, revealing over 156 distinct types.
- New research published in Open Mind finds that sperm whale codas contain vowel-like and diphthong-like patterns, as revealed when recordings are sped up, said Gaaper Begua of UC Berkeley and Project CETI.
- Over the past five years, Project CETI documented hundreds of whales off Dominica, Caribbean, with the vowel insight growing from a two-year-old elephant-inspired reframing and last year’s MIT researchers’ paper on coda properties.
- Using around 9,000 recordings, Project CETI researchers deployed drones, hydrophones and on‑whale tags, feeding data into custom AI models described as 'ChatGPT for whales' to identify vocal patterns.
- CETI and NYU collaborators propose legal uses of the science, arguing in Ecology Law Quarterly that CETI evidence could ground at least two rights for sperm whales: freedom from torture and cultural rights.
- Human-Caused noise and ship strikes pose acute threats to whales, killing around 20,000 annually amid a global shipping fleet of more than 100,000 vessels; if confirmed, findings could reshape scientific community and conservation policymakers’ views.
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Morningstar.com
Morningstar.comScientists Discover Vowel- and Diphthong-like Patterns in Sperm Whale Communication
/PRNewswire/ -- A groundbreaking study led by Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) and the University of California, Berkeley, has uncovered a new...
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Total News Sources18
Leaning Left2Leaning Right0Center7Last UpdatedBias Distribution78% Center
Bias Distribution
- 78% of the sources are Center
78% Center
L 22%
C 78%
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