Sperm whale ‘clicks’ have complex patterns similar to human speech

ENVIRONMENT – BIODIVERSITY

21 MAY 2026

• Sperm whales communicate using short sequences of clicks known as codas, which they exchange while coordinating within their groups.
• Scientists have long classified these sequences using the number of clicks and the timing between them.
• A study published on April 15 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B has however reported that there is more to it than meets the ears: the codas also vary in their acoustic structure i.e. tonal quality, in ways that resemble patterns found in human speech.
• “Before this work, sperm whale vocalisations were often treated as a kind of Morse code — simply patterns defined mainly by timing.
•  For example, a 1+1+3 coda consists of two clicks separated by pauses, followed by three clicks in rapid succession, while a 5R coda contains five evenly spaced clicks.
• Because different whale groups use different sets of these patterns, the system is unlikely to be entirely inborn.
• Instead, scientists think at least part of it is learnt within groups.