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Teaching in marine mammals? Anecdotes versus science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2001

Dario Maestripieri  and
Jessica Whitham
Dario Maestripieri
Affiliation:
Institute for Mind and Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 d-maestripieri@uchicago.eduwhitham@midway.uchicago.edu
Jessica Whitham
Affiliation:
Institute for Mind and Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 d-maestripieri@uchicago.eduwhitham@midway.uchicago.edu
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Abstract

The use of anecdotes is not a viable research strategy to study animal culture. Social learning processes can often be documented with careful quantitative analyses of observational data. Unfortunately, suggestions that killer whales engage in teaching are entirely based on subjective interpretations of qualitative observations. Thus, “evidence” of teaching in killer whales cannot be used to argue for the occurrence of culture in marine mammals.

Type
Brief Report
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , April 2001 , pp. 342 - 343
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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