Sperm whales shared information on how to avoid human attacks in the 19th century, study suggests

Sperm whale.
(Image credit: VALERY HACHE/AFP via Getty Images)

Sperm whales learned how to avoid human attacks in the 19th century by sharing information about them with each other, a new study by the United Kingdom's Royal Study concluded, The Guardian reports.

The authors analyzed newly digitized logbooks detailing whaling in the north Pacific during that time and discovered the strike rate of harpoons fell by 58 percent within five years. That suggests sperm whales, which are very social creatures, underwent a "cultural evolution" (the timeframe is far too short for genetic evolution, Hal Whitehead, one of the authors of the study said) by communicating with each other. Behavioral changes that allowed them to evade their human hunters included abandoning their normal defensive positions used against orcas, their only natural predator.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.