The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins
Unequivocally: yes. In The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins, cetacean biologists Hal Whitehead, who has spent much of his life on the ocean trying to understand whales, and Luke Rendell, whose research focuses on the evolution of social learning, open an astounding porthole onto the fascinating culture beneath the waves. As Whitehead and Rendell show, cetacean culture and its transmission are shaped by a blend of adaptations, innate sociality, and the unique environment in which whales and dolphins live: a watery world in which a hundred-and-fifty-ton blue whale can move with utter grace, and where the vertical expanse is as vital, and almost as vast, as the horizontal.
Drawing on their own research as well as a scientific literature as immense as the sea—including evolutionary biology, animal behavior, ecology, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience—Whitehead and Rendell dive into realms both humbling and enlightening as they seek to define what cetacean culture is, why it exists, and what it means for the future of whales and dolphins. And, ultimately, what it means for our future, as well.
Culture in the Ocean?
Mammals of the Ocean
Song of the Whale
What the Dolphins Do
Mother Cultures of the Large Toothed Whales
How Do They Do It?
Is This Evidence for Culture?
How the Whales Got Culture
Whale Culture and Whale Genes
The Implications of Culture: Ecosystems, Individuals, Stupidity, and Conservation
The Cultural Whales: How We See Them and How We Treat Them
This Book Came From and Is Built On . . .
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