Animal traditions: what they are, and why they matter

Abstract

This chapter presents a number of examples of the multigenerational transmission of traits in nonhuman animals via so-called "simple" forms of social learning, such as stimulus enhancement. The "simple" mechanisms of social learning underwriting most animal traditions are widely viewed to be incapable of accurately transmitting traits across multiple generations. By facilitating the propagation of traditions and cultural traits within populations, social learning makes the persistence of those traits less sensitive to small-scale, chancy events, such as predation and localized or temporally restricted environmental change. The human case offers us a further pointer regarding how animal traditions might have a lasting impact on populations, despite the challenges of fragility and fidelity in genetic assimilation. Humans intentionally and unintentionally modify their environments to make them more amenable to the transmission of cultural information from one generation to the next. The significance of such animal traditions is debated.