To attract a cat, one must present their hand at a respectable distance from her, one finger extended to mimic the nose of a companion cat. Without touching her, you must let her smell you. That is the way to say ‘Hello!’. To improve your chances of befriending her, look her in the eye, but do not stare. Instead, blink very slowly. Show her she is in control, and that you trust her not to harm you while your eyes are closed. That is the way to say ‘I offer friendship!’. At this stage, knowing the usual success rate with befriending cats, you might as well abort the mission and sit ten meters away from her. But did you already know that is the exact proper behaviour to invite her to approach you on her terms? Cats are reserved and calculating, yet so curious and loving. And just as every other living being, you must speak their language to understand them.
To attract a cat, one must present their hand at a respectable distance from her, one finger extended to mimic the nose of a companion cat. Without touching her, you must let her smell you. That is the way to say ‘Hello!’. To improve your chances of befriending her, look her in the eye, but do not stare. Instead, blink very slowly. Show her she is in control, and that you trust her not to harm you while your eyes are closed. That is the way to say ‘I offer friendship!’. At this stage, knowing the usual success rate with befriending cats, you might as well abort the mission and sit ten meters away from her. But did you already know that is the exact proper behaviour to invite her to approach you on her terms? Cats are reserved and calculating, yet so curious and loving. And just as every other living being, you must speak their language to understand them.
Illustration by Chitra Mohanlal
Illustration by Chitra Mohanlal
Humans are widely known for our cultural variations, evident in our differing views, traditions, and values. In addition, we possess a tool to communicate ideas that no other animal has developed this much – human language. Noam Chomsky once said that ‘human language appears to be a unique phenomenon, without significant analogue in the animal world’ (Chomsky, 2006, p. 59). Humans have become unlimited by the number of messages that they can communicate through combining specific sounds (phonemes) into patterns. In addition, we can discuss the past and future, abstract and imaginary, and record its use through the development of writing systems. Humans use their language to construct their often reason-informed behaviours and in many cases transfer their culture (Jose, 2015). Despite that, humans are not the only species to have developed social norms and culture. So, we pose the question: How much do you know about animal language and their culture?
In contrast to humans, animal language is biologically driven and thus instinctive and reflexive (Jose, 2015). There is no written language nor any ability hitherto found to communicate anything further than the present. Seven methods of communication exist that can be used by animals to portray less abstract concepts such as mate finding, dominance establishment, territory defence, hunting and care: visual, auditory, olfactory, electric, touch, seismic and thermal. This article gives a brief overview, with a description of each method and examples of its use. Finally, we will discuss how animals are also able to communicate behaviour, resulting in the development of distinct animal cultures.
“Animal language is biologically driven and thus instinctive and reflexive. There is no ability to communicate anything further than the present.”
Visual
Multiple forms of visually perceptible communications exist. One is the use of gestures – the display or movement of body parts. Perhaps the most expansive demonstration of gestures can be found in Great Apes, leading to the extensive Great Ape Dictionary (University of St Andrews, n.d.). An example is the “chest beat”, used to display the presence of a threat (Nanyang Technological University, n.d.). Another well-known example can be found in the peacock, which rattles its impressively colourful feathers (called a “train”) in an attempt to attract the attention of peahens for mating (Dahlin, 2018). Out of respect for dogs, please note the often misunderstood tail wag of a dog: its speed, direction and breadth all change the meaning! For example, wagging to the right implies more positive emotions and to the left more negative emotions; faster wags indicate excitement unless the tail is held high when it means aggression, and slower wags indicate insecurity; moving its tail more broadly indicates more positive emotions while narrowed breadth more negative emotions. Another visual communication tool is facial expressions – often carrying emotional information. It is perhaps the most interesting to provide examples of two facial expressions in the animal kingdom that we would be most likely to misinterpret through anthropomorphism, the tendency to attribute human characteristics to animals (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). First, while many of us would dismiss every dog yawn as a sign of tiredness or boredom, it can often mean that they are stressed or anxious (Finlay, 2017); following the link below to the Finlay article can provide you with advice on how to calm down our canine friends. Second, a chimpanzee “smile” is a sign of fear (and potential aggression to come) rather than an indication of a budding friendship built on humour (Preidt, 2017).
Another type of visual communication is through gaze-following which involves the following of another’s head and eyes towards cues such as food or predators. While often found in primates and crows, wolves also demonstrate the use of gaze-following around a visual barrier such as a wall (Range & Virányi, 2011). Furthermore, colour change can occur across the body as the whole (e.g. for camouflage in the chameleon) or across specific body regions. An example of the latter is the swelling and bright colouring of the olive baboon’s anogenital area when ovulating (Vaglio et al., 2021). Bioluminescent communication involves the production of light. One particularly terrifying example is the female angler fish (thankfully swimming far deeper than your conventional beach permits) using the light extending from a piece of their spine like a fishing pole for interested prey (National Geographic, n.d.).
Auditory
This form of communication is characterised by vocalisation. Humans do not only “speak” with phonemes; languages exist that incorporate whistling (e.g. Silbo Gomero), tongue clicking (e.g. Xhosa) and many more. This great auditory communication variation is mirrored in the animal world. Rather than just “talking”, gorillas may also hum to show enjoyment of food and thus a wish to be temporarily alone (Mirsky, 2016). Threatened snakes may hiss, and in some cases, rattle, cloacal pop, scale rub, and growl (specific to the King Cobra) (Carter, 2020). Also, bird “song” can serve for mate attraction and territorial disputes and bird “call” for more day-to-day affairs (Carlsen, 2020). Within these species, there are even regional and species-specific accents (Villazon, n.d.).
Olfactory (chemical)
Various animals spread information through the use of chemical messengers known as pheromones (Texas Tech University, n.d.). When dogs sniff another dog, they discover their age as well as their emotional and physiological state (ACS Distance Education, n.d.), preventing the need for any personal questions in the process of acquainting. Other examples of the purpose of pheromones include helping rabbit offspring to find their mother’s nipples for breastfeeding (Texas Tech University, n.d.), boars to initiate sexual or social behaviour (European Molecular Biology Laboratory, n.d.), and army ants to recruit other ants to aid their resource gathering (O’Donnell, 2016).
Electric
Electrocommunication is perhaps the rarest. While electricity is used by some species to attack or defend (e.g. the electric eel) and to locate food (e.g. the platypus and echidna), some fish have been found to use electricity to communicate information such as their sex, species and identity (Dunlap et al., 2017). Counterproductively, these electrical signals can be picked up by larger predators such as sharks and rays (Cassidy & Singer, 2015).
Touch
Touch can be used as a tool in many social interactions. It can be used to indicate aggression (e.g. over territory) or the absence of aggression, mating intentions like the male kangaroo grabbing the female kangaroo’s tail (Duffy, 2018), social integration through grooming in primates (Lehmann et al., 2007) and other species, and foraging aid requests as demonstrated by the tapping of antennae in some species of ant (Shwartz, 2003).
Seismic
Seismic communication involves the creation and transmission of one’s vibrations and/or the reception of vibrations through some medium. It is often used in places with little air – restricting oral communication – such as underwater and underground. Perhaps the most interesting form of seismic communication is the headbanging of demon mole rats against the top of their tunnel when wishing to be left alone (Nast, 2013). Another common example can be found in spiders, which pluck their web to communicate with other spiders as well as to find caught prey and structural faults within their webs (Ouellette, 2021).
Thermal
Thermal communication is relatively rare – often restricted to the snake family – and involves the receptivity of infrared thermal radiation. This is used by various types of snakes for hunting by searching for greater body heat. Interestingly, ground squirrels have been found to use this thermal ability against their slithering predators, pumping warm blood into their raised tails to communicate that they are much larger creatures and aware of the snake’s presence (Yong, 2009).
Culture
Now that you’re well-versed in animal language, we would like to shed light on another phenomenon that humans and non-human animals share: cultural differences. Generally, animals use emulative learning – a type of social learning focused on the environmental elements associated with another animal’s behaviour (Heine, 2020). Thus, animals copy the most efficient methods used by their ancestors and avoid unnecessary behaviours. However, interestingly, some animals have been shown to copy sub-optimal information regarding how to handle the external environment, which they most likely adopted through social learning. For example, guppies can learn to follow the wrong leading individual, taking a longer, more energy-draining route towards food (Laland & Williams, 1998). Therefore, animals are capable of adopting inefficient habits, solely because they are the cultural norm (such as leader-following). This represents the more precise definition of culture, which is that some species have been found to develop differing cultural habits, depending on geographical location (Keith & Bull, 2016).
To illustrate animal culture at work, let us examine the social dynamics in a typical baboon group, studied by Sapolsky and Share (2004). During mealtimes, the most aggressive males tend to eat first. Consequently, when struck by tuberculosis as a result of ingesting contaminated food, half the male population died. The ones that survived were the less aggressive males who did not fight to ingest the contaminated food. This experience influenced the transition of the tribe’s cultural norms from aggression and conflict towards more grooming, harmony, and care. Even new male members, joining the tribe, conformed to these norms and culturally adapted. Long after the incident, the norm of harmony remained, as a result of large cultural change.
“animals are capable of adopting inefficient habits, solely because they are the cultural norm”
Another species, famous for their numerous cultural differences, are humpback whales. For starters, pods of whales use differing foraging (feeding) strategies, depending on geographical location. To get back to the example of trap-feeding, this method involves the whale creating a trap with its mouth and waiting for prey to fall into it while it is escaping from birds (McMillan et al., 2018). This behaviour is region-specific and is an evident example of cultural transmission. It also serves as an example of horizontal cultural transmission – a behaviour learned from peers instead of parents (Sahib, 2020). In addition, scientists have been able to identify where a whale comes from due to region-specific whale songs (Garland et al., 2015). Lastly, these animals differ in their choices of breeding and feeding grounds (Oña et al., 2016). In sum, humpback whales are a fascinating example of social learning of cultural information.
An array of animals show the ability to transmit social information in this way. Chimpanzees have demonstrated diverse strategies for extracting termites from termite mounds (Heine, 2020), and rats are capable of observational learning to avoid threats (Carcea & Froemke, 2019). And if you thought bumblebees were cute before, then I am about to make them sound even more amazing. Creatures as tiny as them possess a toolkit of basic social transmission and motor learning processes, meaning that they are capable of coping behaviours of novel foraging tool use. Thus, bumblebees can learn novel skills from one another, which makes them readily prepared for cultural learning (Alem et al., 2016). Elephants, on the other end of the size spectrum, have shown social intelligence. A study on African elephants shows that they possess incredibly developed social discriminatory skills, and so can differentiate between contact calls of other elephants, despite being in direct, daily contact with numerous peers per day (McComb et al., 2001). Not only that, but the authors show elephant families differ on how adept they are at this skill, which depends to a large extent on the eldest group member whom all others learn from through social transmission. Sadly, these elderly members are often the largest group members and thus the most common hunting targets. Upon their removal, the entire group’s social discriminatory skill decreases, which has large consequences for the group’s survival. Finally, numerous species of fish, namely the sticklebacks families, the European flounder, the Bullhead sculpins, and many others show cultural differences in their prey selection, depending on geographical region (Allen, 2019). In sum, the fact that such cultural learning exists in so many species suggests a strong evolutionary role of culture that is not only crucial to humans but a large part of life as a whole.
The vivid, wild animal world continues to impress us and so much more has yet to be found. From incredible ways of information transmission to the development of cultural differences, our non-human co-inhabitants must not be underestimated. <<
References
– ACS Distance Education. (n.d.). How do dogs communicate. https://www.acsedu.com/info/pets/animal-care-and-handling/dog-communication.aspx
– Alem, S., Perry, C. J., Zhu, X., Loukola, O. J., Ingraham, T., Søvik, E., & Chittka, L. (2016). Associative Mechanisms Allow for Social Learning and Cultural Transmission of String Pulling in an Insect. PLOS Biology, 14(10), e1002564.
– Allen, J. A. (2019). Community through Culture: From Insects to Whales: How Social Learning and Culture Manifest across Diverse Animal Communities. BioEssays, 41(11), 1900060.
– Carcea, I., & Froemke, R. C. (2019). Biological mechanisms for observational learning. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 54, 178–185.
– Carlsen, K. (2020, March 11). Why do birds sing? Watching Backyard Birds. https://watchingbackyardbirds.com/wbbsite/articles/featured/bird-songs-and-bird-calls.php
– Carter, L. (2020, December 15). Why do snakes hiss at you? (Snake hissing meaning). Snakes for Pets. https://www.snakesforpets.com/why-do-snakes-hiss/#Lack_of_Socialization
– Cassidy, H., & Singer, G. (2015, August 11). How do sharks and rays use electricity to find hidden prey? KQED. https://www.kqed.org/science/106591/sharks-and-rays-sense-electricity-fish-cant-hide
– Chomsky, N. (2006). Language and mind (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
– Dahlin, B. (2018, February 28). Peacock courtship. Lake Forest College. https://www.lakeforest.edu/news/peacock-courtship
– Duffy, J. (2018, November 3). Watch: Kangaroo mating. Echidna Walkabout Tours. https://www.echidnawalkabout.com.au/kangaroo-mating/
– Dunlap, K. D., Silva, A. C., Smith, G. T., & Zakon, H. H. (2017). Weakly electric fish: behavior, neurobiology, and neuroendocrinology.
– European Molecular Biology Laboratory. (n.d.). 5alpha-androst-16-en-3-one (CHEBI:37894). https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chebi/searchId.do?chebiId=CHEBI:37894
– Finlay, K. (2017, June 15). Why do dogs yawn? American Kennel Club. https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/why-do-dogs-yawn/
– Garland, E. C., Goldizen, A. W., Lilley, M. S., Rekdahl, M. L., Garrigue, C., Constantine, R., Hauser, N. D., Poole, M. M., Robbins, J., & Noad, M. J. (2015). Population structure of humpback whales in the western and central South Pacific Ocean as determined by vocal exchange among populations. Conservation Biology, 29(4), 1198–1207.
– Heine, S. J. (2020). Cultural Psychology (Fourth International Student ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.
– Jose, J. M. (2015, December 7). The difference between animal and human communication. Owlcation. https://owlcation.com/stem/The-difference-between-animal-and-human-communication
– Keith, S. A., & Bull, J. W. (2016). Animal culture impacts species’ capacity to realise climate-driven range shifts. Ecography, 40(2), 296–304.
– Laland, K. N., & Williams, K. (1998). Social transmission of maladaptive information in the guppy. Behavioral Ecology, 9(5), 493–499.
– Lehmann, J., Korstjens, A. H., & Dunbar, R. I. (2007). Group size, grooming and social cohesion in primates. Animal Behaviour, 74(6), 1617-1629.
– McComb, K., Moss, C., Durant, S. M., Baker, L., & Sayialel, S. (2001). Matriarchs As Repositories of Social Knowledge in African Elephants. Science, 292(5516), 491–494.
– McMillan, C. J., Towers, J. R., & Hildering, J. (2018). The innovation and diffusion of “trap-feeding,” a novel humpback whale foraging strategy. Marine Mammal Science, 35(3), 779–796.
– Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Definition of anthropomorphism. In Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anthropomorphism
– Mirsky, S. (2016, May 1). Gorillas hum and sing while they eat to say, “Do not disturb”. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gorillas-hum-and-sing-while-they-eat-to-say-do-not-disturb/
– Nast, C. (2013, October 23). Head-banging demon mole rats just want to be left alone. Wired. https://www.wired.com/2013/10/head-banging-demon-mole-rats-just-want-to-be-left-alone/#:~:text=So%20how%20does%20a%20demon,to%20make%20their%20presence%20known
– National Geographic. (n.d.). Anglerfish. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/facts/anglerfish
– O’Donnell, S. (2016, August 25). Ant wars. Serious Science. https://serious-science.org/ant-wars-6652
– Oña, J., Garland, E. C., & Denkinger, J. (2016). Southeastern Pacific humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and their breeding grounds: Distribution and habitat preference of singers and social groups off the coast of Ecuador. Marine Mammal Science, 33(1), 219–235.
– Ouellette, J. (2021, April 15). MIT scientists study spider web structure by translating it into music. Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/04/mit-scientists-study-spider-web-structure-by-translating-it-into-music/
– Preidt, R. (2017). A monkey’s ‘smile’ may not be sweet. MedicineNet. https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=204599
– Range, F., & Virányi, Z. (2011). Development of gaze following abilities in wolves (Canis lupus). PLoS One, 6(2), e16888.
– Sahib, J. (2020, March 6). Trap-Feeding: a New Creative Feeding Method. Baleines En Direct. https://baleinesendirect.org/en/trap-feeding-a-new-creative-feeding-method/
– Sapolsky, R. M., & Share, L. J. (2004). A Pacific Culture among Wild Baboons: Its Emergence and Transmission. PLoS Biology, 2(4), e106.
– Shwartz, M. (2003, May 7). Ants’ body odor, physical contact get worker ants working, study finds. Stanford News. https://news.stanford.edu/news/2003/may7/antchat-57.html
– Texas Tech University. (n.d.). The pheromone site. https://www.depts.ttu.edu/animalwelfare/research/pheromones/index.php
– University of St Andrews. (n.d.). The Great Ape Dictionary. https://greatapedictionary.ac.uk/
– Vaglio, S., Minicozzi, P., Kessler, S. E., Walker, D., & Setchell, J. M. (2021). Olfactory signals and fertility in olive baboons. Scientific reports, 11(1), 1-18.
– Villazon, L. (n.d.). Do animals have accents? BBC Science Focus Magazine. https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/animal-accents/
– Yong, E. (2009, July 19). Ground squirrels use infrared signals to fool heat-seeking rattlesnakes. National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/ground-squirrels-use-infrared-signals-to-fool-heat-seeking-rattlesnakes
Humans are widely known for our cultural variations, evident in our differing views, traditions, and values. In addition, we possess a tool to communicate ideas that no other animal has developed this much – human language. Noam Chomsky once said that ‘human language appears to be a unique phenomenon, without significant analogue in the animal world’ (Chomsky, 2006, p. 59). Humans have become unlimited by the number of messages that they can communicate through combining specific sounds (phonemes) into patterns. In addition, we can discuss the past and future, abstract and imaginary, and record its use through the development of writing systems. Humans use their language to construct their often reason-informed behaviours and in many cases transfer their culture (Jose, 2015). Despite that, humans are not the only species to have developed social norms and culture. So, we pose the question: How much do you know about animal language and their culture?
In contrast to humans, animal language is biologically driven and thus instinctive and reflexive (Jose, 2015). There is no written language nor any ability hitherto found to communicate anything further than the present. Seven methods of communication exist that can be used by animals to portray less abstract concepts such as mate finding, dominance establishment, territory defence, hunting and care: visual, auditory, olfactory, electric, touch, seismic and thermal. This article gives a brief overview, with a description of each method and examples of its use. Finally, we will discuss how animals are also able to communicate behaviour, resulting in the development of distinct animal cultures.
“Animal language is biologically driven and thus instinctive and reflexive. There is no ability to communicate anything further than the present.”
Visual
Multiple forms of visually perceptible communications exist. One is the use of gestures – the display or movement of body parts. Perhaps the most expansive demonstration of gestures can be found in Great Apes, leading to the extensive Great Ape Dictionary (University of St Andrews, n.d.). An example is the “chest beat”, used to display the presence of a threat (Nanyang Technological University, n.d.). Another well-known example can be found in the peacock, which rattles its impressively colourful feathers (called a “train”) in an attempt to attract the attention of peahens for mating (Dahlin, 2018). Out of respect for dogs, please note the often misunderstood tail wag of a dog: its speed, direction and breadth all change the meaning! For example, wagging to the right implies more positive emotions and to the left more negative emotions; faster wags indicate excitement unless the tail is held high when it means aggression, and slower wags indicate insecurity; moving its tail more broadly indicates more positive emotions while narrowed breadth more negative emotions. Another visual communication tool is facial expressions – often carrying emotional information. It is perhaps the most interesting to provide examples of two facial expressions in the animal kingdom that we would be most likely to misinterpret through anthropomorphism, the tendency to attribute human characteristics to animals (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). First, while many of us would dismiss every dog yawn as a sign of tiredness or boredom, it can often mean that they are stressed or anxious (Finlay, 2017); following the link below to the Finlay article can provide you with advice on how to calm down our canine friends. Second, a chimpanzee “smile” is a sign of fear (and potential aggression to come) rather than an indication of a budding friendship built on humour (Preidt, 2017).
Another type of visual communication is through gaze-following which involves the following of another’s head and eyes towards cues such as food or predators. While often found in primates and crows, wolves also demonstrate the use of gaze-following around a visual barrier such as a wall (Range & Virányi, 2011). Furthermore, colour change can occur across the body as the whole (e.g. for camouflage in the chameleon) or across specific body regions. An example of the latter is the swelling and bright colouring of the olive baboon’s anogenital area when ovulating (Vaglio et al., 2021). Bioluminescent communication involves the production of light. One particularly terrifying example is the female angler fish (thankfully swimming far deeper than your conventional beach permits) using the light extending from a piece of their spine like a fishing pole for interested prey (National Geographic, n.d.).
Auditory
This form of communication is characterised by vocalisation. Humans do not only “speak” with phonemes; languages exist that incorporate whistling (e.g. Silbo Gomero), tongue clicking (e.g. Xhosa) and many more. This great auditory communication variation is mirrored in the animal world. Rather than just “talking”, gorillas may also hum to show enjoyment of food and thus a wish to be temporarily alone (Mirsky, 2016). Threatened snakes may hiss, and in some cases, rattle, cloacal pop, scale rub, and growl (specific to the King Cobra) (Carter, 2020). Also, bird “song” can serve for mate attraction and territorial disputes and bird “call” for more day-to-day affairs (Carlsen, 2020). Within these species, there are even regional and species-specific accents (Villazon, n.d.)
Thermal
Thermal communication is relatively rare – often restricted to the snake family – and involves the receptivity of infrared thermal radiation. This is used by various types of snakes for hunting by searching for greater body heat. Interestingly, ground squirrels have been found to use this thermal ability against their slithering predators, pumping warm blood into their raised tails to communicate that they are much larger creatures and aware of the snake’s presence (Yong, 2009).
Seismic
Seismic communication involves the creation and transmission of one’s vibrations and/or the reception of vibrations through some medium. It is often used in places with little air – restricting oral communication – such as underwater and underground. Perhaps the most interesting form of seismic communication is the headbanging of demon mole rats against the top of their tunnel when wishing to be left alone (Nast, 2013). Another common example can be found in spiders, which pluck their web to communicate with other spiders as well as to find caught prey and structural faults within their webs (Ouellette, 2021).
Touch
Touch can be used as a tool in many social interactions. It can be used to indicate aggression (e.g. over territory) or the absence of aggression, mating intentions like the male kangaroo grabbing the female kangaroo’s tail (Duffy, 2018), social integration through grooming in primates (Lehmann et al., 2007) and other species, and foraging aid requests as demonstrated by the tapping of antennae in some species of ant (Shwartz, 2003).
Electric
Electrocommunication is perhaps the rarest. While electricity is used by some species to attack or defend (e.g. the electric eel) and to locate food (e.g. the platypus and echidna), some fish have been found to use electricity to communicate information such as their sex, species and identity (Dunlap et al., 2017). Counterproductively, these electrical signals can be picked up by larger predators such as sharks and rays (Cassidy & Singer, 2015).
Olfactory (chemical)
Various animals spread information through the use of chemical messengers known as pheromones (Texas Tech University, n.d.). When dogs sniff another dog, they discover their age as well as their emotional and physiological state (ACS Distance Education, n.d.), preventing the need for any personal questions in the process of acquainting. Other examples of the purpose of pheromones include helping rabbit offspring to find their mother’s nipples for breastfeeding (Texas Tech University, n.d.), boars to initiate sexual or social behaviour (European Molecular Biology Laboratory, n.d.), and army ants to recruit other ants to aid their resource gathering (O’Donnell, 2016).
Culture
Now that you’re well-versed in animal language, we would like to shed light on another phenomenon that humans and non-human animals share: cultural differences. Generally, animals use emulative learning – a type of social learning focused on the environmental elements associated with another animal’s behaviour (Heine, 2020). Thus, animals copy the most efficient methods used by their ancestors and avoid unnecessary behaviours. However, interestingly, some animals have been shown to copy sub-optimal information regarding how to handle the external environment, which they most likely adopted through social learning. For example, guppies can learn to follow the wrong leading individual, taking a longer, more energy-draining route towards food (Laland & Williams, 1998). Therefore, animals are capable of adopting inefficient habits, solely because they are the cultural norm (such as leader-following). This represents the more precise definition of culture, which is that some species have been found to develop differing cultural habits, depending on geographical location (Keith & Bull, 2016).
To illustrate animal culture at work, let us examine the social dynamics in a typical baboon group, studied by Sapolsky and Share (2004). During mealtimes, the most aggressive males tend to eat first. Consequently, when struck by tuberculosis as a result of ingesting contaminated food, half the male population died. The ones that survived were the less aggressive males who did not fight to ingest the contaminated food. This experience influenced the transition of the tribe’s cultural norms from aggression and conflict towards more grooming, harmony, and care. Even new male members, joining the tribe, conformed to these norms and culturally adapted. Long after the incident, the norm of harmony remained, as a result of large cultural change.
“animals are capable of adopting inefficient habits, solely because they are the cultural norm”
Another species, famous for their numerous cultural differences, are humpback whales. For starters, pods of whales use differing foraging (feeding) strategies, depending on geographical location. To get back to the example of trap-feeding, this method involves the whale creating a trap with its mouth and waiting for prey to fall into it while it is escaping from birds (McMillan et al., 2018). This behaviour is region-specific and is an evident example of cultural transmission. It also serves as an example of horizontal cultural transmission – a behaviour learned from peers instead of parents (Sahib, 2020). In addition, scientists have been able to identify where a whale comes from due to region-specific whale songs (Garland et al., 2015). Lastly, these animals differ in their choices of breeding and feeding grounds (Oña et al., 2016). In sum, humpback whales are a fascinating example of social learning of cultural information.
An array of animals show the ability to transmit social information in this way. Chimpanzees have demonstrated diverse strategies for extracting termites from termite mounds (Heine, 2020), and rats are capable of observational learning to avoid threats (Carcea & Froemke, 2019). And if you thought bumblebees were cute before, then I am about to make them sound even more amazing. Creatures as tiny as them possess a toolkit of basic social transmission and motor learning processes, meaning that they are capable of coping behaviours of novel foraging tool use. Thus, bumblebees can learn novel skills from one another, which makes them readily prepared for cultural learning (Alem et al., 2016). Elephants, on the other end of the size spectrum, have shown social intelligence. A study on African elephants shows that they possess incredibly developed social discriminatory skills, and so can differentiate between contact calls of other elephants, despite being in direct, daily contact with numerous peers per day (McComb et al., 2001). Not only that, but the authors show elephant families differ on how adept they are at this skill, which depends to a large extent on the eldest group member whom all others learn from through social transmission. Sadly, these elderly members are often the largest group members and thus the most common hunting targets. Upon their removal, the entire group’s social discriminatory skill decreases, which has large consequences for the group’s survival. Finally, numerous species of fish, namely the sticklebacks families, the European flounder, the Bullhead sculpins, and many others show cultural differences in their prey selection, depending on geographical region (Allen, 2019). In sum, the fact that such cultural learning exists in so many species suggests a strong evolutionary role of culture that is not only crucial to humans but a large part of life as a whole.
The vivid, wild animal world continues to impress us and so much more has yet to be found. From incredible ways of information transmission to the development of cultural differences, our non-human co-inhabitants must not be underestimated. <<
