By Cathrine Winblad (vet. student)
There is a claim that whales and dolphins, like humans, can learn and pass on local customs (Levy 2003). This is behaviours said to be cultural by some scientists. The thought of animals as cultural individuals might be annoying to some, surprising or met by wondering by others. What does it mean to have a culture? To answer the question it is necessarily to first of all try to define the word culture.
“Culture is information or behaviour – shared by a population- witch
is acquired through social learning” (Levy 2003).
This one raises the question if all social learned behaviours are culture.
“Culture function to clarify what people value, what they take seriously
in their daily lives and what they will fight for” (Levy 2003).
Used by anthropologists and psychologists.
Animal’s behaviour is less complex than humans, but some scientists say that even birds can belong to a culture club (Levy 2003).
Different groups of orcas can be distinguished by experts quickly on
the background of the sound they produce. This can by some mean that they
belong to one cultural group. Scientists believe that wild Cetaceans can
teach each other new songs, creative hunting and defends strategies. These
new behavioural elements can be passed on from generation to generation,
and new customs can be spread quickly through a population.
This points us in the direction that the behaviour is, at least to some
extent, influenced by environmental factors. In order for natural selection
to operate on behaviour, behavioural patterns must be at a minimum partly
genetically based. If we use the definition that culture is behaviour
– shared by a population- witch is acquired through social learning, we
can say that orcas have culture.
The reason for different dialects among orcas might come from a result
trying to eliminate the chances of inbreeding. Killer whales live in close
social groups consisting of a mother and here offspring’s from one or
more generation. Families of closely related mothers associate in pods
(larger groups). Each pod have a dialect consisting of 7 -17 distinctive
calls. By having different dialects in a pod they can avoid inbreeding
with closely related animals. They can identify who is or is not an eligible
mate. To classify them as cultivated on this background will depend on
our approach to the culture phenomenon.
An interesting question is to try to solve the ratio of behaviour witch
is genetically programmed versus determined by the environment, for then
compare this to the conception of animal culture.
One of the challenges to decide if behaviour is genetically programmed or determined by the environment is to find a method that will give clear answers. This is complicated in domestic animals, but even more so in wild populations. In domestic animals we can use for example cross- fostering experiments, twin and adoption studies or inbreed lines. None of these methods is suitable to apply on wild living cetaceans. Most of the behaviours are a mix of genetically coded behaviour and environmental factors. The majority of animal actions can be analyzed functionally in terms of combination of stimulus and response (Drickamer). Is it culture to react to the surroundings in a favourable way you saw another member in your grope do? Humpback whales seem to learn quickly. In the 1980’s a humpback in the Gulf of Main began to slap the water surface with its tail before feeding. This stun the fish or krill below and made it easier to feed on them. The behaviour of lobtail feeding spread quickly trough the local population (Levy 2003).
The question about how the cultural knowledge is transmitted can be put in this way: Do the parents or other member in the group deliberate teach the young certain ways of foraging or communication, or do the young pick these things up by observation? If we accept that any form for learning implies culture, it can very well be that Cetacean is cultural animals. Not all scientists or people in general accept that all forms of learning implies culture. One curiously question coming to my mind is if we conclude that cetacean have a culture, is there also uncultivated individuals among them, and is there any form for inappropriate culture?
The question about what culture is and thereby if Cetacean can be classified as cultural animals comes from different views among groups of academics. Anthropologists and psychologists consider culture to be unique to human. Biologists on he other hand seems to have a different opinion. Yurk (biologist of the University of British Columbia) says “culture should be accepted as an indicator with important conservation implications” (Levy 2003). He gives the example of the three pods of killer whales populations of southern Vancouver Island. The pods have developed different dialects, and now the differences in the language are so great that they can’t understand each other. Because of that language barrier some unique groups might die out.
Play behaviour is important in the development of motorick and social
skills. Play may also have a role in developing of new behaviours. If
a new way of doing things is displayed during play, other animals can
pick it up if it is successful (Drickamer). Young animals are more likely
to learn new techniques than older adults (Levy 2003), but also older
animal’s can learn new tricks.
A well known social learned behaviour in cetaceans is when an entire population
of humpbacks changed song. This happened at the coast of Australia, where
a few whales strayed from east to west where they met a western population.
The travelling animals completely replaced their original song to the
western type in a period of two years. If this can be called culture depend
on whom you ask. Yurk (Levy 2003) argues that this have to be cultural
behaviour when compared to what we think of as human cultural phenomena.
For instance we consider body piercing or listening to heavy metal music
as culture. Those habits are normally not encouraged by the parents. In
spite of that the behaviours is spread among young individuals. Stan Kuczaj,
a developmental physiologist at University of Southern Mississippi, on
the other hand don’t think that any form for learning implies culture.
This is the key issue in the question about culture as a human characteristic
or appearance among animals.
Conclusion:
To say that Cetacean have a culture will depend on the definition we use.
It is a nature versus nurture question, a phrase originating from Shakespeare’s
The Temptes: a trait witch is influenced by genes is determined by “nature”,
while a trait under environmental control is determined by “nurture” (Drickamer).
The human culture did not appear as it is now; it is continuously formed
and remodelled. I assume that will have to be the same among animals.
If using the definition of culture as information or behaviour – shared
by a population- witch is acquired through social learning, we can say
that cetacean, among others, have a culture.
In the human race there is a tendency to try to find unique features that
separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Instead of trying to
argue whether animals can have culture or not, it might be better to accept
our self as a part of the puzzle making up the natural world (Levy 2003).
The largest difference between animals and humans is therefore not if
they have culture, but at what stage in the development the culture is.
References
Levy, Sharon, 2003. The cultural Cetacean. National Wildlife federation,
www.nwf.org
Drickamer, Jacob Vessey, Animal Behavior- mechanisms, ecology and evolution, 5th ed, Mc Graw Hill