Animal Cultures – on the road again!

Animal Cultures – a joint Biology/Psychology exhibit is once more ‘on the road’… It’s easy to think of human culture as uniquely isolating us from nature and basic evolutionary processes. Our research has instead revealed cultural processes of varying complexity in primates, birds and fish. The exhibit is now at the Budongo Trail in Edinburgh … Read more

New book: The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins

Luke Rendell from the School of Biology, along with collaborator Hal Whitehead of Dalhousie University in Canada, has a new book released this month by University of Chicago Press, titled “The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins”. Author Phillip Hoare describes it as “an astonishing, unconstrained exploration of the nature and practice of cetacean culture. … Read more

When in Rome… now online

The When in Rome… touch screen interactive about Erica van de Waal’s research into the behaviour of vervet monkeys is now available online (a fast internet connection is advised). You can also see a video which is which is part of this interactive here.      

GBBF Gallery

A selection of images of Animal Cultures at the BBSRC Great British Bioscience Festival: [cycloneslider id=”animal-cutures-at-gbbf”] A larger selection of images of the Animal Cultures stand at BBSRC GBBF is now also available

Talk – scope of learning in vervets

Dr Erica van de Waal delivered a talk titled: Field experiments reveal the scope of social learning in vervet monkeys Watch here http://youtu.be/Qr7R-BlPihc Behavioural tradition has been an active topic in animal behaviour since the renowned Japanese macaque studies of half a century ago, yet controlled field experiments to clearly identify social learning in the … Read more

Worksheets for Schools

Just added Alaina Macri’s great worksheet pdfs to our resources page. Key Stage 2 (worksheet and answer sheet) Key Stage 3 (worksheet and answer sheet) Key Stage 4 (worksheet and answer sheet)

Chimp culture seen in ‘real time’

Researchers, including Dr Catherine Hobaiter from the University of St Andrews, have observed the spread of a new tool being invented and used by a group of wild chimpanzees. This is the first time that researchers have been able to track the spread of a natural behaviour from individual to individual in the wild. Whilst … Read more

Animal Culture comes to Edinburgh

This week we are at Edinburgh Zoo with our Animal Cultures exhibit. Sited in the Budongo Trail, you will be able see Edinburgh’s resident chimpanzees (including the two-month old baby) in their state-of-the-art home while you have go at a chimp puzzle. Will you be as good as a chimp at learning how to find … Read more