How animals learn and socialise

Far from being “dumb”, animals do communicate and learn from each other. Dr Anjani Ganase discusses how animals socialize, innovate and learn new behaviors across groups of the species. Intelligence is not a peculiarly human trait and we can learn from other species.

In the animal kingdom where parents care for their offspring, they teach them the fundamental lessons for life and the skills to survive. Bird parents teach their young how to fly, orcas, tigers and other predators teach their young to hunt and even monkeys teach their kids how to floss their teeth (with human hair). However, there comes a point where our learning capacity grows beyond genetics and parental care, and this occurs through social learning from peers within a cultural setting.

Similar to that of humans, the cultures within the animal kingdom depend on socially learned behavior to benefit groups of individuals with shared advantages within a species population. By observing, consulting and even mimicking strategies of others that have achieved successes (in foraging, mating and surviving etc), there may be improvement in the individual’s success. Social learning is common to social species of the animal kingdom - mammals, primates - but have also been found in other groups, such as birds and ants. Scientists believe that social learning may be a main driver for community interactions, where groups can benefit from the individual’s innovations and thus improve the survival of the species. Interestingly, the level of social learning is also dependent on the surrounding environments. While stable environments may not require training beyond what was taught by parents, a dynamic environment requires constant adaptation of behaviors and strategies. It is under these conditions that innovation and social learning become crucial for survival.  Here are some examples of social animals taking cues from their peers for survival. 

Dolphins play and learn especially when they need to feed. Photo by Adam Li, NOAA/NMFS/SWFSC

When we think of animals with social traits similar to humans, it is natural to think about our primate cousins. Scientists have studied various groups of monkeys and found that they often exhibit socially learned behavior outside of the parental unit. More interestingly, monkeys were often selective of who they would observe and test out learned behavior. For example, capuchin monkeys looked to the elders of the group for methods in opening fruits, while the vervet monkeys looked to the women of the group as guides on how food should be eaten.  In one experiment, scientists had two boxes with fruit in it, one box had a ‘pull’ lid and the other had a ‘lift’ lid. Scientists discovered that monkeys often mimicked the strategies of the higher ranked monkeys within the group who were able to open the “lift” box. Other monkeys also learned to lift the lid and preferred to open that same box.  Interestingly, the monkeys did not apply the same strategy to the other “pull” box; once the ‘lift’ lid was opened, individual monkeys were more likely to open the other “pull” box on their own, using their own strategies. It seems that the elder did not necessarily teach the monkey how to lift box lids, rather they taught them to be curious and innovative for themselves and flexible in their strategies.

Another group of animals that are known for social learning are birds. In mixed flocks of songbirds, individuals that are naturally more inquisitive when it comes to foraging in new areas encouraged other individuals of the same species, as well as other species to follow suit. In another study, American crows learned how to recognize the facial features of humans that were harmful to them. This information can be communicated from observations of an initial incident and the reaction to the incident is mimicked and then the information is carried with the bird to other areas, who then learn to react defensively towards a harmful human.

While it is much harder to observe and document social learning in the ocean, it seems to be quite common, especially in marine mammals. Following a major marine heat wave in 2018 in Western Australia that wiped out seagrass beds and the organisms that depended of the seagrass, scientists recently observed a sudden change in foraging behavior by dolphins which quickly trended over a larger area. Dolphins used a technique called shelling where they would scare and trap fish into empty shells of marine gastropods in order to eat them. Owing to the success of the shelling tool, this behavior has caught on among social groups in the wider area.

 

Sperm whales have sophisticated social interactions. Photo courtesy Wayne Hoggard, NOAA/NMFS/SEFSC

Other marine mammals, such as the sperm whale, can form sophisticated and hierarchical forms of social interactions. While it may have been thought that the whale clans were essentially family units born and raised together, this is not the case for sperm whales.  Rather, clans of sperm whales form when they communicate in a similar style (slang) of notes and share a common interest with other whales.  In other words, individuals who behaved similarly were more likely to prefer to interact and learn from each other by forming a clan. They also seemed to conform to certain communicated behaviors in order to be accepted into the group. While there may be understanding among clans, ,the dialect within a group may be distinct, and important for communications within the group.

Humans are not the only creatures with social behaviours, communication skills or that co-operate for community survival. Indeed, humans have no corner on intelligence. Perhaps it’s not too late for humans to learn co-existence and compassion for our own species, and extend that respect across the myriad life forms that make our planet such a unique and marvellous world.

References

Cantor, Maurício, et al. "Multilevel animal societies can emerge from cultural transmission." Nature communications 6.1 (2015): 1-10.

Canteloup, Charlotte, William Hoppitt, and Erica van de Waal. "Wild primates copy higher-ranked individuals in a social transmission experiment." Nature communications 11.1 (2020): 1-10.

Wild, Sonja, et al. "Integrating Genetic, Environmental, and Social Networks to Reveal Transmission Pathways of a Dolphin Foraging Innovation." Current Biology (2020).

Cornell, Heather N., John M. Marzluff, and Shannon Pecoraro. "Social learning spreads knowledge about dangerous humans among American crows." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279.1728 (2012): 499-508.

Farine, Damien R., et al. "Interspecific social networks promote information transmission in wild songbirds." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282.1803 (2015): 20142804.