Projects per year
Abstract
Many species are known to acquire valuable life skills and information from others, but until recently it was widely believed that animals did not actively facilitate learning in others. Teaching was regarded as a uniquely human faculty. However, recent studies suggest that teaching might be more common in animals than previously thought. Teaching is present in bees, ants, babblers, meerkats and other carnivores but is absent in chimpanzees, a bizarre taxonomic distribution that makes sense if teaching is treated as a form of altruism. Drawing on both mechanistic and functional argument we integrate teaching with the broader field of animal social learning, and show how this aids understanding of how and why teaching evolved, and the diversity of teaching mechanisms.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 486-493 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Trends in Ecology and Evolution |
Volume | 23 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Sept 2008 |
Keywords
- GOLDEN LION TAMARINS
- WILD PIED BABBLERS
- LEONTOPITHECUS-ROSALIA
- FEEDING BEHAVIOUR
- DOMESTIC CHICKS
- ORCINUS-ORCA
- EVOLUTION
- MECHANISMS
- PREDATION
- CULTURE
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Dive into the research topics of 'Lessons from Animal Teaching'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 3 Finished
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Predicting the Learning BB/D015812/1: Predicting the learning diffusion and inheritance of behavioural innovations in animal populations
Lala, K. (PI)
1/10/07 → 30/09/10
Project: Standard
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BB/C005430/1: Investigating social learning strategies using nine-spined sticklebacks
Lala, K. (PI)
1/03/05 → 31/08/08
Project: Standard