Understanding Animal Culture | Lucy Aplin | Explorers Festival London 2019
Summary
TLDRIn this talk, the speaker explores the concept of animal culture, exemplified by the spread of behaviors like washing sweet potatoes by macaques and milk bottle opening by tits. Highlighting research on chimpanzees, she discusses cultural variants like hand clasping and tool use, emphasizing the importance of social learning. The speaker's own study on great tits demonstrates how innovations can spread through social networks, leading to population-level behavioral changes. She advocates for the conservation of animal culture, noting its significance for behavioral flexibility and adaptation, and its influence on human-animal interactions in urban environments.
Takeaways
- 🔬 The concept of 'Protoculture' was introduced after observing a young Japanese macaque washing sweet potatoes in the sea, a behavior that spread within its society.
- 🌐 In the 1990s, researchers noticed variations in chimpanzee behaviors across different sites in Africa, which couldn't be explained by ecological or genetic factors alone.
- 🐵 Chimpanzees are not the only animals exhibiting cultural behaviors; similar patterns have been observed in New Caledonian crows, dolphins, killer whales, and birds.
- 🧬 The idea of animal culture is broadly defined as behaviors that are socially learned, shared within a group, differ between communities, and persist over time.
- 🕊️ A historical example of animal culture is the milk bottle opening behavior observed in tits in the UK, which spread geographically and showed accumulative uptake over generations.
- 📊 The speaker's research involved creating a social network of great tits to study the spread of behaviors like milk bottle opening, demonstrating social learning and cultural transmission.
- 🌿 The study of animal culture is significant for conservation efforts, as it highlights the importance of preserving not just animal populations but also the cultural knowledge they hold.
- 🦅 In some cases, lost cultural behaviors, like migration routes in bighorn sheep, can be reintroduced through training, showing the potential for cultural inheritance in conservation.
- 🏙️ Animal behavior in urban environments is dynamic and responsive to human-induced selective pressures, indicating a two-way interaction between animals and their modified habitats.
- 🌱 The study of animal culture fosters empathy and a deeper understanding of animals as individuals with rich social and cultural lives, beyond mere numbers.
Q & A
What significant behavior was observed in Japanese macaques in 1954?
-In 1954, a young Japanese macaque was observed taking sweet potatoes to the sea to wash them, a behavior that spread among other macaques and is still seen today.
What term was used to describe the macaques' behavior of washing sweet potatoes?
-The researchers labeled this behavior as 'Protoculture'.
How did chimpanzee behavior vary across different research sites in Africa during the 1990s?
-Researchers noticed that behaviors such as hand clasping grooming and tool use varied between sites, with some sites showing these behaviors and others not, indicating cultural differences.
What is meant by 'animal culture' in the context of the script?
-Animal culture refers to behaviors that are socially learned, shared by members of a group, differ between communities, and persist over time, potentially across generations.
What is an example of animal culture observed in birds?
-An example of animal culture in birds is the 'song dialects' where birds from different populations often sing different tunes.
How did the milk bottle opening behavior in tits spread geographically and across generations?
-The behavior of opening milk bottles was observed to have two independent origins and spread both geographically and through generations over twenty years.
What method did the researcher use to study the social ecology of great tits?
-The researcher used microchips to track birds and built a social network to study their interactions and the spread of behaviors like milk bottle opening.
How did the researcher demonstrate social learning in great tits?
-The researcher trained some birds to solve a sliding door task and observed that the majority of the birds in their social community used the same technique, indicating they learned by copying each other.
What is the significance of the study on animal culture for conservation efforts?
-The study highlights the importance of conserving not just animal numbers but also the cultural knowledge within populations, which is crucial for behavioral flexibility and adaptation.
How can cultural inheritance in animals be influenced by human activities?
-Cultural inheritance can be influenced by providing new opportunities and challenges, as seen in urban environments where animals adapt to human-modified environments, shaping and being shaped by human behavior.
What is the role of animal culture in shaping our perception of animals?
-Understanding animal culture can increase empathy for animals, viewing them as individuals with rich social and cultural lives, rather than just numbers.
Outlines
🌊 Animal Culture and Innovation
The speaker, a scientist and daughter of a geologist, discusses the concept of animal culture, beginning with a 1954 study of Japanese macaques that started washing sweet potatoes in the sea, a behavior that spread and persists. This was termed 'Protoculture.' The narrative then shifts to the 1990s, where chimpanzee behaviors varied across Africa, leading to the identification of 39 cultural variants by researchers like Jane Goodall. The speaker emphasizes that while chimpanzees are a flagship for animal culture, other species like crows, dolphins, and whales also exhibit cultural behaviors. The speaker's personal involvement began with studying great tits in the UK, particularly their milk bottle opening behavior, which was an early example of social learning and innovation spreading through a population.
🔬 Social Learning and Cultural Transmission
The speaker details an experiment where great tits were microchipped to track their social networks and behaviors. By introducing a new task—opening a sliding door for food—the speaker observed how the behavior spread through the social network, indicating social learning. This was further confirmed over three generations, demonstrating the persistence of learned behaviors. The speaker argues that such innovation and social learning are crucial for rapid behavioral adaptation in changing environments, which is not possible on genetic timescales. The speaker also touches on the concept of cultural inheritance and the challenges of regaining lost cultural behaviors, using the example of reintroduced bighorn sheep and moose in the US.
🌳 Conservation and the Role of Animal Culture
The speaker concludes by discussing the implications of animal culture for conservation. It's emphasized that conserving animal populations is not just about numbers but also about preserving the cultural knowledge within those populations. The example of whooping cranes in the US is used to illustrate how conservationists can help reintroduce lost behaviors, such as migration routes, by guiding young birds. The speaker suggests that animal culture research shows that behavior is dynamic and responsive to environmental pressures, as seen in urban environments. Finally, the speaker argues that recognizing the rich social and cultural lives of animals can increase empathy and change our perspective on them, highlighting the importance of this understanding in an increasingly disconnected world.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Animal Culture
💡Protoculture
💡Social Learning
💡Cultural Variants
💡Ecology
💡Great Tits
💡Social Network
💡Cultural Inheritance
💡Behavioral Flexibility
💡Conservation
💡Urban Adaptation
Highlights
A Japanese macaque started washing sweet potatoes in the sea in 1954, which spread across macaque society, indicating early evidence of animal culture.
Chimpanzees exhibit different behaviors across research sites in Africa, including hand-clasp grooming and tool use, suggesting localized cultural variations.
Researchers found 39 cultural variants in chimpanzee behavior that couldn't be explained by ecological or genetic differences.
Cultural behavior isn't exclusive to chimpanzees; it's observed in species like New Caledonian crows, dolphins, and birds through song dialects and tool use.
Animal culture is defined as socially learned behavior shared within a group, differing between communities, and persisting across generations.
Tool use in chimpanzees has persisted for thousands of years, evidenced by archaeological findings.
A long-running study at Oxford University tracked great tits, revealing their ability to solve tasks and spread the solution through social learning.
Great tits learned to open milk bottles in the 1920s, with this innovation spreading geographically and persisting for decades.
Microchipping birds allowed researchers to map social networks and track how learned behaviors spread through communities.
An experiment showed birds could solve tasks based on observing others, proving the importance of social learning in animal culture.
Behavioral innovations in animals, like tool use, can lead to population-level changes, offering a mechanism for adaptation in changing environments.
In populations reintroduced after extermination, it can take decades to regain behaviors like migration, emphasizing the importance of cultural inheritance.
Conservationists have used techniques like microlight airplanes to reintroduce migratory behaviors in species like whooping cranes.
Animal culture research highlights the importance of conserving not only populations but also the cultural knowledge held by animals.
Urban environments force animals to adapt, with species like cockatoos in Australia demonstrating behavioral flexibility in response to human-modified habitats.
Transcripts
[Applause]
thank you and as a scientist and the
daughter of a kick-ass geologist mother
I am very pleased to be here just after
international women in science day as
well
exactly so a story about understanding
of animal culture starts in 1954 when a
young Japanese macaque started taking
provisions sweet potatoes down to the
sea to wash them and this behavior was
picked up by other young macaques and
then spread throughout macaque Society
where it still in fact persists today
and the researchers at the time labeled
this as a what they called Protoculture
we then need to fast forward to get a
perspective that combines this with
ecology to the 1990s when researchers
working at chimpanzee sites across
Africa began to collect their data sets
and noticed that the behaviors they were
describing in each of their different
research sites were not necessarily
being observed in all of them so one
example of this is what's called the
hand clasping grooming behavior in
chimpanzees where they hold hands when
they grew they do this in some sites but
not all in Africa and in the sites where
they do do this behavior we see that in
some they hold hands and in others they
lock wrists so this might sound like a
kind of a bit of a weird oddity but when
the researchers compared notes they
found this wasn't the only example in
some sites in Africa chimpanzees used
stone tools to crush nuts in other sites
they used her might they use sticks to
fish for termites and in total Andy
White and Jane Goodall Christoph Bosch
and their colleagues identified 39
cultural variants which were apparently
differing between sites and could not be
given an ex-world an explanation that
was clearly ecological or genetic so
where do I come into this story well I
was a
oops sorry sir I should pause here and
say that while chimpanzees are the
flagship species for the discovery and
description of what we call an animal
culture they're not the only case and
more recent research has shown that we
see cultural behavior in New Caledonian
crow crows in toy use in forging
behaviors in dolphins and killer whales
and in other whales and in birdsong
where birds from different populations
often sing different tunes and we've
labeled this as song dialects and I
should pause here and explain what I
mean by animal culture so we mean very
broadly a behavior which is socially
learned so that is learned by copying
another individual is shared by members
of a group or a community and differs
between communities and persists over
time and perhaps over generations in the
cage case of tool use in chimpanzees
archaeological evidence is actually now
showing us that it's persistent for
sometimes thousands of years so where do
I come into this story well as a young
graduate in Australia I was lucky enough
to be given the opportunity to come
study the social ecology of great hits
in this long-running research site at
the University of Oxford why from woods
and I didn't know much about this
quintessential little British bird but I
knew one story and that's a story that
some of you might know as well of milk
bottle opening so in 1921 tits were
first observed piercing the tops of milk
bottles on doorsteps and stealing cream
and at the time fissure and high end in
an early example of citizen science
began to collect these reports and were
able to show that the behavior appeared
to have two independent sites of origin
and then over the next-gen twenty years
until multiple designs change spread
geographically and also in showed
accumulative uptake in the pop
and when I began to look at this I found
it amazing that firstly this is 30 years
before it was first observed in those
Japanese macaques and secondly nobody
had then gone back and experimentally
tested how this might have happened what
process would were we seeing for this
spread of innovation so we don't know
for sure what happened in this case but
we could hypothesize it might have
looked something like this
we had a new opportunity cream and
innovation on the part of some number of
individuals to access that cream here's
the foil social learning and the
transmission of this innovation
throughout the population leading to a
population level change in behavior that
persisted over generations and we might
be able to call something like animal
culture so with the team of social
ecologists we microchipped bunch of
birds in white and woods with these
little microchips the same that you'd
put on your cat or dog and this allowed
us to remotely track them when they came
to foraging patches across the woodland
and this is a network superimposed over
the map of that same woodland where
every bird is a dot the line between the
dots of the social connection between
them so the amount of time they spend
foraging together and the color of the
social communities we can identify in
the wider population so effectively what
we're building here is a social network
of birds I went into this social network
and I targeted two birds from every
social community that I brought into
captivity not too trained to open milk
bottles but to solve this little sliding
door task so they could slide this door
either to the left or right I trained
them on one direction and they get a
mealworm reward I then put these tasks
back out into the world and observed
hundreds of birds in each social
community solving it to get food the
vast majority of whom were solving using
the same technique that the original
bird had shown that I introduced but in
every task there was an equally
difficult equally rewarding alternative
sliding the other way so the fact
they're all showing the same behavior is
really good evidence we have for social
learning that they're learning by
copying each other we could also observe
it spreading through the social network
so here the two yellow dots of the trade
innovators I seeded in and they're
turning red and with the order in which
they learn the behavior and hopefully as
you can see it spreads across the social
network and social connections are
really important for the order in which
the birds learn and more than that we
also put these tasks back out over three
generations and we're able to show that
the behavior once established in the
population persisted strongly over time
so effectively and experimentally
induced animal culture and I think this
work for me was very exciting because it
demonstrated that an innovation to a new
opportunity on the part of a very small
number of individuals is a realistic
mechanism to observe population level
change in behavior and in our modern
world where many animals no longer live
in the environments we might think that
they evolved in or experienced over
evolutionary time but rather in rapidly
modify and highly modified environments
this could be a very fundamentally
important mechanism for behavioral
flexibility to allow rapid adaptation
that's not possible on genetic
timescales over Lucian area timescales
so well this is I think a good news
story for many of the animals that we
see and that we live with and interact
we also need to think about the way in
which cultural knowledge can be shaped
by the impact and influence of
successive generations over time and we
call this process cultural inheritance
and when that cultural knowledge is lost
from populations entirely it can also be
very hard to regain and the best example
for this comes from my blend migration
routes so you
bighorn sheep and moose in the US in
populations that were completely
exterminated by hunting and then
reintroduced we found or researchers
found by Brett Jasper and colleagues
that it can take decades to even regain
migration as a behavior in those
populations and between 90 and 150 years
to regain the sort of optimal migration
routes that were once observed in
healthy populations but when we know
about this and we know that cultural
knowledge is important we also have a
way of hijacking this system to for the
powers of good you could say in our
conservation efforts and the best
example of this comes from the fantastic
work that's been done in whooping cranes
in the US as well
so here conservationists have used
microlight airplanes to effectively
train young birds that are being
reintroduced on where to migrate and
these young birds can then act as the
older experienced individuals for the
next generation of wild born chicks so
we can kind of reinsert migratory
behavior back into this population and I
think what animal culture research can
tell us about when it comes to
conservation is how important it is not
only to conserve numbers of individuals
and populations but also to conserve
knowledge that's held in animal
populations and how we need to consider
this when we also when we think about
targeting our conservation efforts but
the flip side of this is that it also
tells us that in some species behavior
is not fixed but responding in real-time
to the sort of selective pressures that
we're placing upon it
and so we can clearly see this in urban
environments where some animals have
adapted very successfully for example my
recent research on sulphur crested
cockatoos which are very successful
urban adapter in Australia but more than
this it tells us that behavior in these
environments is actually a dialogue so
we shape the behavior of animals by
providing new opportunities and new
challenges they're responding to this
but by thriving in our highly modified
urban and human environments they're
also shaping our behavior as well for
example by becoming increasingly tame or
giving us opportunities to interact with
them and fundamentally and I think more
broadly than this animal culture tells
us that animals other than humans have
rich social and cultural and interesting
lives which I hope is a perspective that
will increase empathy for animals as we
begin to see them not just as numbers
but also as interesting individuals and
in an increasingly disconnected world I
think this is more important than ever
before thank you
[Applause]
you
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