Culture and conservation of non-humans with reference to whales and dolphins: review and new directions

@article{citeulike:410935, abstract = {There is increasing evidence that culture is an important determinant of behavior in some non-human species including great apes and cetaceans (whales and dolphins). In some cases, there may be repercussions for population biology and conservation. Rapidly evolving "horizontal" cultures, transmitted largely within generations, may help animals deal with anthropogenic change and even allow them to exploit it, sometimes with negative consequences for both the animals and humans. In contrast, stable "vertical" or "oblique" cultures, transmitted principally between generations, may impede adaptation to environmental change, and confound range recovery, reintroductions and translocations. Conformist stable cultures can lead to maladaptive behavior, which may be mistaken for the results of anthropogenic threats. They can also structure populations into sympatric sub-populations with distinctive cultural variants. Such structuring is common among cetaceans, among which sympatric sub-populations may face different anthropogenic threats or respond to the same threat in different ways. We suggest that non-human culture should be integrated into conservation biology when considering populations with such attributes, and also more generally by refining definitions of evolutionarily significant units and considering how cultural attributes may change our perspectives of non-humans.}, author = {Whitehead, Hal and Rendell, Luke and Osborne, Richard W. and Wursig, Bernd }, citeulike-article-id = {410935}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2004.03.017}, journal = {Biological Conservation}, keywords = {animal, cognition, culture, dolphins, sociocognitive}, month = {December}, number = {3}, pages = {427--437}, posted-at = {2005-11-29 00:30:55}, priority = {2}, title = {Culture and conservation of non-humans with reference to whales and dolphins: review and new directions}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2004.03.017}, volume = {120}, year = {2004} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:410935 L3 - citeulike-article-id:410935 TI - Culture and conservation of non-humans with reference to whales and dolphins: review and new directions JF - Biological Conservation VL - 120 IS - 3 SP - 427 EP - 437 N2 - There is increasing evidence that culture is an important determinant of behavior in some non-human species including great apes and cetaceans (whales and dolphins). In some cases, there may be repercussions for population biology and conservation. Rapidly evolving "horizontal" cultures, transmitted largely within generations, may help animals deal with anthropogenic change and even allow them to exploit it, sometimes with negative consequences for both the animals and humans. In contrast, stable "vertical" or "oblique" cultures, transmitted principally between generations, may impede adaptation to environmental change, and confound range recovery, reintroductions and translocations. Conformist stable cultures can lead to maladaptive behavior, which may be mistaken for the results of anthropogenic threats. They can also structure populations into sympatric sub-populations with distinctive cultural variants. Such structuring is common among cetaceans, among which sympatric sub-populations may face different anthropogenic threats or respond to the same threat in different ways. We suggest that non-human culture should be integrated into conservation biology when considering populations with such attributes, and also more generally by refining definitions of evolutionarily significant units and considering how cultural attributes may change our perspectives of non-humans. KW - animal KW - cognition KW - culture KW - dolphins KW - sociocognitive AU - Whitehead, Hal AU - Rendell, Luke AU - Osborne, Richard AU - Wursig, Bernd PY - 2004/12// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2004.03.017 ER -