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Culture: In the beak of the beholder?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2001

Spencer K. Lynn
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 skl@u.arizona.eduimpepper@media.mit.edu www.u.arizona.edu/~skl www.alexfoundation.org
Irene M. Pepperberg
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 skl@u.arizona.eduimpepper@media.mit.edu www.u.arizona.edu/~skl www.alexfoundation.org

Abstract

We disagree with two of Rendell and Whitehead's assertions. Culture may be an ancestral characteristic of terrestrial cetacean ancestors; not derived via marine variability, modern cetacean mobility, or any living cetacean social structure. Furthermore, evidence for vocal behavior as culture, social stability, and cognitive ability, is richer in birds than Rendell and Whitehead portray and comparable to that of cetaceans and primates.

Type
Brief Report
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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