ORCID Profile
0000-0002-1121-9142
Current Organisation
University of St Andrews
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-10-2008
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2021
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X20001715
Abstract: Focus on the evolutionary origins of musicality has been neglected relative to attention on language, so these new proposals are welcome stimulants. We argue for a broad comparative approach to understanding how the elements of musicality evolved, and against the use of overly simplistic evolutionary accounts.
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 26-04-2013
Abstract: Cultural transmission of information occurs when in iduals learn from others with more experience or when in iduals come to accept particular modes of behavior as the local norm. Such information transfer can be expected in highly social or long-lived species where contact and time for learning are maximized and are seen in humans (see the Perspective by de Waal ). Using a network-based diffusion analysis on a long-term data set that includes tens of thousands of observations of in idual humpback whales, Allen et al. (p. 485 ) show that an innovative feeding behavior has spread through social transmission since it first emerged in a single in idual in 1980. The “lobtail” feeding has passed among associating in iduals for more than three decades. Van de Waal et al. (p. 483 ), on the other hand, used a controlled experimental approach in vervet monkeys to show that in iduals learn what to eat from more experienced in iduals within their social group. Not only did young animals learn from observing older animals, but immigrating males switched their food preference to that of their new group.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 21-04-2021
Abstract: A key goal of conservation is to protect bio ersity by supporting the long-term persistence of viable, natural populations of wild species. Conservation practice has long been guided by genetic, ecological and demographic indicators of risk. Emerging evidence of animal culture across erse taxa and its role as a driver of evolutionary ersification, population structure and demographic processes may be essential for augmenting these conventional conservation approaches and decision-making. Animal culture was the focus of a ground-breaking resolution under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), an international treaty operating under the UN Environment Programme. Here, we synthesize existing evidence to demonstrate how social learning and animal culture interact with processes important to conservation management. Specifically, we explore how social learning might influence population viability and be an important resource in response to anthropogenic change, and provide ex les of how it can result in phenotypically distinct units with different, socially learnt behavioural strategies. While identifying culture and social learning can be challenging, indirect identification and parsimonious inferences may be informative. Finally, we identify relevant methodologies and provide a framework for viewing behavioural data through a cultural lens which might provide new insights for conservation management.
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 08-03-2019
Abstract: Understanding the rich social lives of animals benefits international conservation efforts
Publisher: Acoustical Society of America (ASA)
Date: 04-2023
DOI: 10.1121/10.0017602
Abstract: In idually distinctive acoustic signals in animal vocal communication are taxonomically widespread, however, the investigation of these signal types in marine mammals has focused only on a few species. Humpback whale songs are a stereotyped, hierarchically structured vocal display performed by males, and hence thought to be sexually selected. Within a population, whales conform to a common version of the song despite the song constantly evolving. While humpback songs have been studied extensively at the population level, in idual level variation has been rarely described, with inconclusive results. Here, we quantified inter- and intra-in idual variability at different levels in the song hierarchy using songs from 25 singers across two song types from the eastern Australian population song of 2002 (12 singers), and the revolutionary song introduced in 2003 (13 singers). Inter-in idual variability was found heterogeneously across all hierarchical levels of the song structure. In addition, distinct and in idually specific patterns of song production were consistently recorded across song levels, with clear structural differences between the two song types. These results suggest that within the constraints of song conformity, males can produce in idually distinctive patterns that could function as an advertisement to females to convey in idual qualities.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 15-05-2007
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 04-09-2019
DOI: 10.1098/RSOS.190337
Abstract: Cultural transmission of behaviour is important in a wide variety of vertebrate taxa from birds to humans. Vocal traditions and vocal learning provide a strong foundation for studying culture and its transmission in both humans and cetaceans. Male humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) perform complex, culturally transmitted song displays that can change both evolutionarily (through accumulations of small changes) or revolutionarily (where a population rapidly adopts a novel song). The degree of coordination and conformity underlying song revolutions makes their study of particular interest. Acoustic contact on migratory routes may provide a mechanism for cultural revolutions of song, yet these areas of contact remain uncertain. Here, we compared songs recorded from the Kermadec Islands, a recently discovered migratory stopover, to multiple South Pacific wintering grounds. Similarities in song themes from the Kermadec Islands and multiple wintering locations (from New Caledonia across to the Cook Islands) suggest a location allowing cultural transmission of song eastward across the South Pacific, active song learning (hybrid songs) and the potential for cultural convergence after acoustic isolation at the wintering grounds. As with the correlations in humans between genes, communication and migration, the migration patterns of humpback whales are written into their songs.
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 24-07-2017
Abstract: Cultural processes occur in a wide variety of animal taxa, from insects to cetaceans. The songs of humpback whales are one of the most striking ex les of the transmission of a cultural trait and social learning in any nonhuman animal. To understand how songs are learned, we investigate rare cases of song hybridization, where parts of an existing song are spliced with a new one, likely before an in idual totally adopts the new song. Song unit sequences were extracted from over 9,300 phrases recorded during two song revolutions across the South Pacific Ocean, allowing fine-scale analysis of composition and sequencing. In hybrid songs the current and new songs were spliced together in two specific ways: ( i ) singers placed a single hybrid phrase, in which content from both songs were combined, between the two song types when transitioning from one to the other, and/or ( ii ) singers spliced complete themes from the revolutionary song into the current song. Sequence analysis indicated that both processes were governed by structural similarity rules. Hybrid phrases or theme substitutions occurred at points in the songs where both songs contained “similar sounds arranged in a similar pattern.” Songs appear to be learned as segments (themes hrase types), akin to birdsong and human language acquisition, and these can be combined in predictable ways if the underlying structural pattern is similar. These snapshots of song change provide insights into the mechanisms underlying song learning in humpback whales, and comparative perspectives on the evolution of human language and culture.
Publisher: Acoustical Society of America (ASA)
Date: 07-2017
DOI: 10.1121/1.4991320
Abstract: Identifying and quantifying variation in vocalizations is fundamental to advancing our understanding of processes such as speciation, sexual selection, and cultural evolution. The song of the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) presents an extreme ex le of complexity and cultural evolution. It is a long, hierarchically structured vocal display that undergoes constant evolutionary change. Obtaining robust metrics to quantify song variation at multiple scales (from a sound through to population variation across the seascape) is a substantial challenge. Here, the authors present a method to quantify song similarity at multiple levels within the hierarchy. To incorporate the complexity of these multiple levels, the calculation of similarity is weighted by measurements of sound units (lower levels within the display) to bridge the gap in information between upper and lower levels. Results demonstrate that the inclusion of weighting provides a more realistic and robust representation of song similarity at multiple levels within the display. This method permits robust quantification of cultural patterns and processes that will also contribute to the conservation management of endangered humpback whale populations, and is applicable to any hierarchically structured signal sequence.
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 08-09-2022
Abstract: Culture, a pillar of the remarkable ecological success of humans, is increasingly recognized as a powerful force structuring nonhuman animal populations. A key gap between these two types of culture is quantitative evidence of symbolic markers—seemingly arbitrary traits that function as reliable indicators of cultural group membership to conspecifics. Using acoustic data collected from 23 Pacific Ocean locations, we provide quantitative evidence that certain sperm whale acoustic signals exhibit spatial patterns consistent with a symbolic marker function. Culture segments sperm whale populations into behaviorally distinct clans, which are defined based on dialects of stereotyped click patterns (codas). We classified 23,429 codas into types using contaminated mixture models and hierarchically clustered coda repertoires into seven clans based on similarities in coda usage then we evaluated whether coda usage varied with geographic distance within clans or with spatial overlap between clans. Similarities in within-clan usage of both “identity codas” (coda types diagnostic of clan identity) and “nonidentity codas” (coda types used by multiple clans) decrease as space between repertoire recording locations increases. However, between-clan similarity in identity, but not nonidentity, coda usage decreases as clan spatial overlap increases. This matches expectations if sympatry is related to a measurable pressure to ersify to make cultural isions sharper, thereby providing evidence that identity codas function as symbolic markers of clan identity. Our study provides quantitative evidence of arbitrary traits, resembling human ethnic markers, conveying cultural identity outside of humans, and highlights remarkable similarities in the distributions of human ethnolinguistic groups and sperm whale clans.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 2018
Abstract: Male humpback whales produce hierarchically structured songs, primarily during the breeding season. These songs gradually change over the course of the breeding season, and are generally population specific. However, instances have been recorded of more rapid song changes where the song of a population can be replaced by the song of an adjacent population. The mechanisms that drive these changes are not currently understood, and difficulties in tracking in idual whales over long migratory routes mean field studies to understand these mechanisms are not feasible. In order to help understand the mechanisms that drive these song changes, we present here a spatially explicit agent-based model inspired by methods used in computer music research. We model the migratory patterns of humpback whales, a simple song learning and production method coupled with sound transmission loss, and how often singing occurs during these migratory cycles. This model is then extended to include learning biases that may be responsible for driving changes in the song, such as a bias towards novel song, production errors, and the coupling of novel song bias and production errors. While none of the methods showed population song replacement, our model shows that shared feeding grounds where conspecifics are able to mix provide key opportunities for cultural transmission, and that production errors facilitated gradually changing songs. Our results point towards other learning biases being necessary in order for population song replacement to occur.
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Luke Rendell.