From “Culture in Humans and Apes Has the Same Evolutionary Roots, Researchers Show”
(ScienceDaily, Oct. 20, 2011), we learn: something that no one would have imagined, that orangs have culture just like people.
About ten years ago, biologists who had been observing great apes in the wild reported a geographic variation of behavior patterns that could only have come about through the cultural transmission of innovations, much like in humans. The observation triggered an intense debate among scientists that is still ongoing. To this day, it is still disputed whether the geographical variation in behavior is culturally driven or the result of genetic factors and environmental influences.
There is probably about as much difference between the behaviour of urban and rural squirrels, that offspring learn from their dams, but you wouldn’t get away with calling it culture.
See also: Great apes think ahead: Conclusive evidence of advanced planning capacities Then why doesnit it ever amount to much? And here we thought one Marc Hauser was enough.
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