The value of animal cultures - Many Minds
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- Title
- The value of animal cultures
- Description
- <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Not long ago culture was considered rare in nature, maybe even uniquely human. But that's changed. We now know that the tree of life is buzzing with culture—and not just on a few lonely branches. Creatures great and small learn songs, migration routes, and feeding techniques from each other. Many species build up reservoirs of knowledge over generations. This has profound implications, not just for our understanding of the natural world, but also for our efforts to protect it. </span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">My guest today is <a href= "https://www.cetaceanecology.org/dr-philippa-brakes">Dr. Philippa Brakes</a>. Philippa is an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Exeter, with one foot in science and another in conservation. She's both a behavioral ecologist, focusing on whales and dolphins, and a leading voice—for more than a decade now—urging conservationists to take animal cultures seriously. </span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Here, Philippa and I talk about how researchers define culture and social learning in animals. We tour the mounting evidence for culture across species—in birds, in apes, in fish, possibly even in insects. We discuss the methods that scientists use to infer that behaviors are socially learned. We consider how animal culture complicates the conservation enterprise. We also discuss the idea that animal cultures have intrinsic value—not value for us humans, not value that can be easily quantified, but value for the animals themselves. Along the way Philippa and I talk about the notion of "cultural rescue"; indigenous understandings of animal culture; cases where social learning is maladaptive; human-animal mutualism; fashion trends; the idea of conserving "cultural capacity"; elephant matriarchs and other "keystone individuals"; golden lion tamarins, herring, and regent honey-eaters; and the question of why some orcas wear salmon as hats.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Alright friends, this topic has been on our wish list for a while now. Hope you enjoy it!</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"> </span></p> <p class="p1"><span style= "text-decoration: underline;"><span class="s2"><em>Notes</em></span></span><span class="s1"> </span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">2:30 – For academic articles by Dr. Brakes and colleagues on the importance of animal culture for conservation, see <a href= "https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.aaw3557"><span class="s2"> here</span></a>, <a href= "https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article/288/1949/20202718/86181/A-deepening-understanding-of-animal-culture"> <span class="s2">here</span></a>, and <a href= "https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article/380/1925/20240127/234988/Animal-culture-conservation-in-a-changing"> <span class="s2">here</span></a>. The last of these is the introduction to a recent <a href= "https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/380/1925"><span class="s2"> special issue</span></a> on the topic. Many of the topics discussed in this episode are also covered in this issue. </span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">3:30 – The case of the golden lion tamarins is discussed <a href= "https://brill.com/view/journals/beh/140/2/article-p137_1.xml"><span class="s2"> here</span></a>.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">5:00 – For more about the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (or CMS) of Wild Animals, see <a href="https://www.cms.int/"><span class= "s2">here</span></a>.</span><span class="s1"> </span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">9:00 – For a classic paper on social learning in animals, see <a href= "https://users.ox.ac.uk/~ascch/Celia's%20pdfs/3%201994%20Heyes%20cats%20and%20mechs.pdf"> <span class="s2">here</span></a>. For a relatively recent, detailed overview of animal culture, see <a href= "https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abe6514"><span class= "s2">here</span></a>. For a short primer on animal culture, see <a href= "https://oecs.mit.edu/pub/sk15jg0g/release/1?readingCollection=9dd2a47d"> <span c
- Publication Date
- 2025-12-04T01:02:00+00:00
- Status
- completed
- Website
- https://manyminds.libsyn.com/the-value-of-animal-cultures
- Length
- 71:59
- File
- /podcasts/Many Minds/1764810120-5199.mp3
- Size
- 98.88 MB
- Bitrate
- 187-CBR
- Channels
- 1
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