Cultural transmission within maternal lineages: vocal clans in resident killer whales in southern Alaska

Yurk, Harald; Barrett‐Lennard, Lance G.; Ford, John K. B.; Matkin, Craig O.

doi:10.1006/anbe.2002.3012

Cited by 212 publications

(217 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…In other animal societies, social preference based on tool-use or on socially learned traits per se has not been shown. Although in-group identity, based on socially learned traits, has been proposed for other species, such as group-specific calls in killer whales, Orcinus orca 33,34 and budgerigars, Melopsittacusundulatus 35 , individuals within cultural subgroups exhibit similar calls as a consequence of affiliation. We suggest that spongers also share in-group identity, but affiliation is a consequence of similarity in the socially learned trait, a scenario that resonates with human culture 22 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social networks reveal cultural behaviour in tool-using dolphins

et al. 2012

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Animal tool use is of inherent interest given its relationship to intelligence, innovation and cultural behaviour. Here we investigate whether shark Bay bottlenose dolphins that use marine sponges as hunting tools (spongers) are culturally distinct from other dolphins in the population based on the criteria that sponging is both socially learned and distinguishes between groups. We use social network analysis to determine social preferences among 36 spongers and 69 non-spongers sampled over a 22-year period while controlling for location, sex and matrilineal relatedness. Homophily (the tendency to associate with similar others) based on tool-using status was evident in every analysis, although maternal kinship, sex and location also contributed to social preference. Female spongers were more cliquish and preferentially associated with other spongers over non-spongers. Like humans who preferentially associate with others who share their subculture, tool-using dolphins prefer others like themselves, strongly suggesting that sponge tool-use is a cultural behaviour.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social networks reveal cultural behaviour in tool-using dolphins

et al. 2012

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“…Ecotypes may also exhibit differences in social structure, morphology, behavior and vocal signatures (see for review de Bruyn et al (2013)). In the North Pacific, the resident and transient ecotypes occupy largely sympatric distribution ranges (Ford et al, 2000), but specialize on very different prey resources (fish and marine mammals, respectively; Ford et al, 1998;Krahn et al, 2007), are genetically differentiated (Hoelzel et al, 1998(Hoelzel et al, , 2002(Hoelzel et al, , 2007, and exhibit different social organization (Ford et al, 2000), mating systems (Pilot et al, 2010) and vocal behavior (Yurk et al, 2002;Deecke et al, 2005). Less is known about the 'offshore' ecotype, however, our data indicate that we need to consider their differentiation in sympatry as well.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An earlier division between fish-eating and marine-mammal-eating ecotypes in pelagic waters is reasonable if the nearshore habitat was unavailable at that time (under ice). Differences in dispersal range, social behavior and prey choice between transients and offshores (Yurk et al, 2002) may have reinforced isolation. We suggest that dependence on learned behavior, likely transferred within social groups by tradition, serves to isolate populations of resource specialists, as discussed previously (Hoelzel et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenomics of the killer whale indicates ecotype divergence in sympatry

et al. 2014

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For many highly mobile species, the marine environment presents few obvious barriers to gene flow. Even so, there is considerable diversity within and among species, referred to by some as the 'marine speciation paradox'. The recent and diverse radiation of delphinid cetaceans (dolphins) represents a good example of this. Delphinids are capable of extensive dispersion and yet many show fine-scale genetic differentiation among populations. Proposed mechanisms include the division and isolation of populations based on habitat dependence and resource specializations, and habitat release or changing dispersal corridors during glacial cycles. Here we use a phylogenomic approach to investigate the origin of differentiated sympatric populations of killer whales (Orcinus orca). Killer whales show strong specialization on prey choice in populations of stable matrifocal social groups (ecotypes), associated with genetic and phenotypic differentiation. Our data suggest evolution in sympatry among populations of resource specialists.

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“…Matrilines that associate over half of the time (based on visual observations at the surface) are considered to belong to the same pod (Bigg et al, 1990) and matrilines and pods sharing elements of their acoustic repertoire are referred to as clans (Ford, 1991;Yurk et al, 2002).…”

Section: Killer Whales As Candidates For Using Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Categorization of calls to type by visual inspection of spectrograms was used here since earlier studies using this approach demonstrated high inter-observer reliability scores and compared favorably to automated approaches involving neural networks (Bain, 1986;Ford, 1991;Deecke et al, 1999;Yurk et al, 2002;Deecke & Janik, 2006). Three observers and I each sorted spectrograms of calls from each recording into our own sets of categories.…”

Section: Call Type Assignmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Orchestration : the movement and vocal behavior of free-ranging Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca)

Shapiro¹

2008

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Studying the social and cultural transmission of behavior among animals helps to identify patterns of interaction and information content flowing between individuals. Killer whales are likely to acquire traits culturally based on their population-specific feeding behaviors and group-distinctive vocal repertoires. I used digital tags to explore the contributions of individual Norwegian killer whales to group carousel feeding and the relationships between vocal and non-vocal activity.Periods of tail slapping to incapacitate herring during feeding were characterized by elevated movement variability, heightened vocal activity and call types containing additional orientation cues. Tail slaps produced by tagged animals were identified using a rapid pitch change and occurred primarily within 20m of the surface. Two simultaneously tagged animals maneuvered similarly when tail slapping within 60s of one another, indicating that the position and composition of the herring ball influenced their behavior.Two types of behavioral sequence preceding the tight circling of carousel feeding were apparent. First, the animals engaged in periods of directional swimming. They were silent in 2 of 3 instances, suggesting they may have located other foraging groups by eavesdropping. Second, tagged animals made broad horizontal loops as they dove in a manner consistent with corralling. All 4 of these occasions were accompanied by vocal activity, indicating that this and tail slapping may benefit from social communication. No significant relationship between the call types and the actual movement measurements was found.Killer whale vocalizations traditionally have been classified into discrete call types. Using human speech processing techniques, I considered that calls are alternatively comprised of shared segments that can be recombined to form the stereotyped and variable repertoire. In a classification experiment, the characterization of calls using the whole call, a set of unshared segments, or a set of shared segments yielded equivalent performance. The shared segments required less information to parse the same vocalizations, suggesting a more parsimonious system of representation.This closer examination of the movements and vocalizations of Norwegian killer 3 whales, combined with future work on ontogeny and transmission, will inform our understanding of whether and how culture plays a role in achieving population-specific behaviors in this species. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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Cultural transmission within maternal lineages: vocal clans in resident killer whales in southern Alaska

Cited by 212 publications

References 30 publications

Social networks reveal cultural behaviour in tool-using dolphins

Social networks reveal cultural behaviour in tool-using dolphins

Phylogenomics of the killer whale indicates ecotype divergence in sympatry

Orchestration : the movement and vocal behavior of free-ranging Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca)

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