A FOREIGN song has become an instant hit among the humpback whales that breed
off Australia鈥檚 east coast. Humpbacks from different oceans have markedly
different songs, which usually change only slowly. But in 1996, Mike Noad of the
University of Sydney heard two odd voices among the whales along Australia鈥檚
Pacific coast. They were singing the song of humpbacks from Western
Australia鈥攁n Indian Ocean song (Nature, vol 408, p 537).
鈥淏y the end of 1997 all the males were singing the new song and the old song
was extinct,鈥� he says. Noad thinks a few western whales went astray during their
migration and ended up on the other side of Australia.