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2.5 Learning from Others: Social Cognition and Learning 25

VetBooks.ir way dangerous. Predators learn to discrimi- stringent criteria. They both involve sharing
information between conspecifics and
nate and subsequently avoid prey with these
warning colours (Lindström et al. 2001;
species. Evidence of these types of social
Svádová et al. 2009). sometimes also across generations within a
It is, of course, not only predators who learning as it occurs in the wild may provide
benefit from learning about how to acquire evidence for cultures in the animal kingdom.
and process food. Some of the earliest evi-
dence for social learning came from experi- 2.5.5 Difficulties in Determining
ments showing how wild and laboratory rats Learning Type
gain information about the palatability and
toxicity of unfamiliar foods by observing oth- Cetaceans are also known to be highly imita-
ers (Galef et al. 1984). As opportunistic tive and capable of social learning, both in
omnivores, rats can thus learn quickly to the wild and in captivity (Krützen et al. 2005).
avoid dangerous novel foods without having Killer whales (Orcinus orca) capture seal
to sample them all themselves. Opportunities pups by intentionally stranding on breeding
to learn about what items can be safely eaten, beaches off the coast of Argentina (Guinet
and how food items should be processed and Bouvier 1995). Adult females modified
prior to eating, can come from observing their stranding behaviour in the presence of
others, but also from being provided with naive juvenile calves, suggesting that females
samples of different foods to practice with, as were providing the calves with opportunities
for example in gorilla parenting (G. gorilla) to observe various stranding techniques that
(Nowell and Fletcher 2008; see Figure 2.3), could be used to capture seal pups. Guinet
and encountering food items previously pro- (1991) suggested that killer whale calves
cessed by others, for example capuchins C. developed intentional stranding foraging
apella finding bamboo segments previously skills through imitation of the successful
opened to extract beetle larvae by other hunting behaviours of their mothers (or
members of the group (Gunst et al. 2008). other relatives). Dolphins have been shown
Apart from finding food and avoiding to copy the actions of another dolphin for a
becoming food, the other main preoccupation food reward but can do so even when they
for wild animals is to reproduce. Successful are blindfolded (Jaakkola et al. 2010). Some
reproduction involves finding and selecting have suggested that the observer dolphin
appropriate mates, engaging in copulation, may accomplish this by using the sound
and promoting the survival of offspring. A produced by the motions of the other dol-
good example of the role of learning in this phin or perhaps through vocal communica-
comes from studies of sexual imprinting, tion occurring between the dolphins (but
where young animals learn the characteristics outside the range of human hearing).
of potential mates (such as species‐member- Horner and Whiten (2005) investigated
ship), but also who to avoid mating with emulation in wild‐born chimpanzees from
(because of genetic relatedness), and thus an African sanctuary and compared their
develop sexual preferences. Thus mate choice behaviour to three‐ to four‐year‐old children
and subsequent species divergence can be who observed a human demonstrator use a
influenced by learned preferences (Irwin and tool to retrieve a reward from both a clear
Price 2001; Witte and Nöbel 2011). and an opaque puzzle‐box. In the opaque
condition, it was impossible to differentiate
2.5.4 Imitation, Emulation, between the relevant and irrelevant parts of
and Cultural Transmission the demonstration, whereas, with the clear
puzzle‐box, it was possible to differentiate
Imitation and emulation are also considered between the relevant and irrelevant responses
types of social learning, albeit with more made by the demonstrator necessary to