Nancy Black
Culture is one of those words with a hundred different definitions. Most of these definitions are only relevant to human and their way of life. This is because most people do not know that culture exists in non-human species such as apes, songbirds, elephants, and whales. In fact, out of these animals, whales have the strongest sense of culture. But what is culture?
The definition that most biologists use in reference to non- human culture is " information or behaviour - shared by a population or subpopulation - which is acquired from conspecifics through some form of social learning" (Rendell and Whitehead, 2001a). Simply, it is information gained through interactions from members of the same group - how and why they do what they do.
Now culture can be divided and thought of in two different parts: horizontally, and vertically. Horizontally, also known as shared and behavioural variations, is behavioural patterns gained form peers - eg. fads. Vertically, also known as social learning and transition mechanisms, is what is learned form our parent and elders, it is related to genetics. It is learning through teaching, emulation, imitation, and experience - eg. language. However, studying whale culture is difficult, because they are hard to observe in such a vast habitat. Furthermore, if they were to be studied in tanks, this would have a great influence on the behaviours and cultures of the whales. Basically, it would interfere with the culture they would exhibit in their natural habitat. Consequently, only three species of whales have been documented. These species are: humpback whale, orca, and sperm whale.
It is odd to think that these factors pertain to whales, but they do. Behavioural patterns, such as Orca feeding techniques, the humpback whales mating song, and their feeding styles are effects of culture. But, all whales of each respective species have specific and odd cultural traits. Some that have been around for a while and others that are changing with time - eg. family structure and maladaptive behaviour.
Thus, these are the interesting evidences of whale culture that I am going to further explore and document.
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