the project
Many animals produce vocalizations that sound like songs to our human ears, and comparing animals as different as birds and whales, for example, reveals that both produce “songs” that are very similar in their elaborate, highly-structured patterns. Considering the vastly different evolutionary histories of birds and whales, the isomorphism is surprising.
Humpback Whale Song and Nightingale Song
How does this isomorphism come to be, and what does it mean?
Credits:
Header Image: Lavanya Mani, “Where the Wind Blows” (2021). Used with permission.
The Animal Song Collective is generously supported by a Magic Grant from the Humanities Council at Princeton University.
