It Took A Musician's Ear To Decode The Complex Song In Whale Calls

(8/6/2015) I heard this touching story of whale's singing from NPR today. I am surprised to hear that scientists use 'data analytics' to decode the song of humpback whales's singing. You will see 'visual representations' used in her methodology in decoding whales' songs. Not only that, scientist Payne found the whales' song evolved over time. "But over time, some parts of a group's song gradually change, too — in rhythm, pitch and duration — as the whales listen to each other, and together take up variations that eventually become a new tune."

Morning Edition's audio file