- The idea of a culture or traditions—behavior shared by an identifiable group and acquired through social learning—in cetaceans, a group including whales and dolphins, has been controversial.
- But a new study finds strong evidence that a group of humpback whales...in the Gulf of Maine...is sharing a newly observed feeding behavior via their social networks.
- That behavior, called lobtail feeding, was first recorded in one whale in the Gulf of Maine in 1980.
- Since then, 278 humpback whales—out of about 700 observed individuals that frequent the Stellwagen Bank area—have employed the strategy, according to the study, published this week in the journal Science.
- The new study [shows that]... scientists can use...network analysis in looking at questions of traditions and social learning, said Bennett Galef, a retired professor at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, who specializes in social learning.
- But Galef, who was not involved in the study, cautioned that a behavior can spread through a population without social learning.
- "It could be that since these animals move around together, they just pick up the same behavior at the same time, said Galef. "That's not culture."
- Simon Reader, a behavioral biologist at McGill University in Quebec, Canada, agreed that observational studies can be problematic. For instance, it's possible there's an alternate explanation for the spread of lobtail feeding in these humpback whales, he said.
- "But I think there's pretty strong evidence for social learning."
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