Scientists have challenged the idea that culture is an exclusively human phenomenon by looking at interactions between sperm whales.
A team of researchers found signs of culture in two separate clans of sperm whales, Dalhousie University reported.
"Animal culture is a highly-debated topic among experts," said Mauricio Cantor, a member of the Whitehead Lab in Dalhousie's Faculty of Science. "Our findings provide evidence that key features of human culture-which we think makes us so different from everything else in nature-might be at play in populations of other animals."
The research reveals that although both whale clans share their a relative geographic regions, they have developed their own "dialects" of communication. To make their findings the researchers used computer simulations and field data from as far back as the 1980s. After testing a number of scenarios, the researchers determined the whales are "social learners" that conform to their environments.
"Our findings show that social learning among sperm whales is the required ingredient for the segregation in clans with different 'dialects'," Cantor said.
The findings that culture likely helps shape whale societies could help resolve the debate over whether or not this phenomenon exists in the animal kingdom.
"I've been trying to understand the culture of sperm whales for quite a few years, and for even more I've studied their societies," said Hal Whitehead, biology professor at Dalhousie and Cantor's supervisor. "What Cantor has done is show how interrelated sperm whale society and sperm whale culture are, and how the feedbacks between culture and society may have worked in the evolution of this extraordinary animal."
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Nature Communications.
