Think Before You Speak, Just Like Right Whales

New research shows that right whales may have the ability to think about their calls before vocalizing them. Holly Root-Gutteridge, a former postdoctoral researcher in the College of Arts and Sciences, spoke with Scientific American about this new information, and what that means for these whales.

“Well, it means that instead of having a completely instinctive reaction where they always make the same call in response to the same stimuli—a reflex, basically—that the whales are capable of changing what they’re calling and how they’re communicating,” she said. “Which means that they may be thinking about what they call.”