Male humpback whales sing. Not little squeaks - long, structured songs full of moans, chirps and rising whistles, lasting around 10 to 30 minutes, then starting over. Scientists are still arguing about exactly what the songs are for - possibly attracting mates, possibly something else - but the patterns are clearly not random.
The wild part is that all the male whales in a whole region of ocean sing the same song. Like a hit pop tune, the song has verses and a structure that everyone agrees on. Then, over months and years, the song changes - a new verse appears, an old one drops out - and every whale in the region updates to the new version.
Even wilder: songs spread from one ocean to another. A new song from humpbacks off Australia has been recorded slowly moving east, year by year, until whales thousands of miles away are singing it too. Whale culture, with whale hit charts.
