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Cetacean science does not have to bepseudo-science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2001

Patrick J. O. Miller
Patrick J. O. Miller
Affiliation:
Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543 pmiller@whoi.edu
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Abstract

Rendall and Whitehead overstate the weak evidence for social learningin cetaceans as a group, including the current evidence for vocallearning in killer whales. Ethnographic techniques exist to testgenetic explanations of killer whale calling behavior, andadditional captive experiments are feasible. Without such tests,descriptions of learning could be considered pseudo-scientific, adhoc auxiliary assumptions of an untested theory.

Information

Type
Brief Report
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , April 2001 , pp. 347 - 348
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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