Whales Are Polite Conversationalists

[onestepforward]

They don't interrupt each other :)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091026132930.htm">Science Daily

-snip-

"George Ioup at the University of New Orleans and colleagues have developed a way to analyze calls produced by marine mammals. Their technique, which follows principles similar to how the human ear picks out a voice at a crowded cocktail party, groups similar-sounding clicks to isolate the calls of individual animals.

Natalia Sidorovskaia of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and colleagues have discovered that whales change the intervals between these echolocating clicks in a way that seems to prevent cluttering the echoes from these calls.

"In other words, whales are polite listeners; they do not interrupt each other," writes Sidorovskaia. She suspects that this communication strategy would allow groups of whales to explore their environment faster and more efficiently."

[Solly Mack]

1. Neat

[Botany]

2. Someday we might be able to talk to whales

Whale Brain (folds = smarts)

Boy are we gonna have to explain ourselves.

[onestepforward]

6. awesome picture!

Yes, we will have some explaining to do. The good news we can tell them is that many people do care about them and are trying to make changes for a better world for them too. I'm sure that we could learn from them as well. :)

[supernova]

3. the more I learn about whales

the more I love 'em.

:D

[annabanana]

4. I KNEW it!. .Whales are Democrats. . . .n/t

[onestepforward]

7. LOL! n/t

[Orsino]

5. I'll bet they turn into real assholes, though, on Internet discussion boards. n/t

[eppur_se_muova]

8. They're just conserving bandwith.

Not necessarily polite, just geeky. :D