What Is Dolphin Culture?

The ability for an animal to have culture seems to be a sign of intelligence.

Any animal that appears to have a societal culture seems to fascinate and attract human admiration. In order for a species to possess culture, a few basic requirements must be met. One of those requirements is that a species engages in shared behaviors which vary between populations and is passed down from generation to generation. Additionally, these behaviors must be acquired through social learning and be independent of genetic factors in order to be considered culturally transmitted.

Bottlenose dolphins show the strongest evidence of possessing culture within the order Cetacea. It is a gregarious species, displaying distinct shared behaviors among different groups, which appear to be passed on from mother to calf or between associated individuals. Bottlenose dolphins are also well known for their strong capacity to observe and imitate both vocalizations and motor skills. This strongly suggests that many behaviors are acquired through social learning. Social learning is the most likely explanation for shared behavior in most cases, but lack of proof keeps this a speculation. Further research is necessary to provide concrete evidence that these behaviors are truly passed on via social learning before science, as a whole, may accept culture in the bottlenose dolphin under the current definition.

Bottlenose dolphins have been extensively studied in both human care and in the wild. They are long-lived animals that often exceed 30-50 years of age. They are social animals that live in complex, ever-changing communities, where individuals have long term associations with other individuals that are repeated but not necessarily constant. Bottlenose dolphin societies are comprised of a large number of individuals with distinct subgroups. These subgroups include:

• maternity bands, made up of females and their calves or females of the same age and state of reproduction
• juvenile groups, consisting of youngsters that have become independent from their mothers
• bachelor groups, alliances of 2-3 adult males which have the most stable bonds in bottlenose dolphin society outside the mother and calf bond

Bottlenose dolphins are well known for the “plasticity” in their behavior and apparent cognitive ability. The discovery of these traits, coupled with the social nature of these animals, has led scientists to speculate whether or not bottlenose dolphins and other cetaceans, such as Killer Whales, have culture. Seemingly, the most difficult aspect of determining whether a species has culture is the definition of culture itself. Ethologists, biologists, anthropologists and psychologists all have varying views on how to define culture. Some authors define culture in a very broad sense, while others restrict it to certain properties that are often unable to be determined in species outside of humans.

Definitions of Culture:

• “The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns that characterize the functioning of a group or organization through training or education; enlightenment resulting from such training or education” (American Heritage Dictionary).
• “The integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech, action, and artifacts and depends upon the human capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations” (Merriam-Webster).
• “Information or behavior, shared by a population or subpopulation, which is acquired from conspecifics through some form of social learning” (Rendell & Whitehead, 2001).

It is maintained that the most accepted definition of culture additionally includes imitation and active teaching to achieve true social learning, and that culture is “variation acquired and maintained by social learning which requires the capacity for observational learning.”  No other example of dolphins possessing culture is stronger than their feeding strategies and capabilities. Herding is one of the most common methods of feeding that the dolphins use. This involves a pod working as a unit to get the school of fish to curl up into a tight ball. Then the dolphins will take turns to rush though and plow the center of that ball, eating all they can in the process. The fish are stunned so they are easier to get this way. Some dolphins have been seen driving prey into the muddy banks so that they can easily access them.

There are certain species of dolphins that will use their flukes too in order to stun their prey. They will hit them hard and then while they are still disoriented they will feed on them. What is very interesting too is that in some locations the dolphins have learned behavior to help the fishermen drive the fish into their nets. The payoff for the dolphins is that they get to feed on the leftover fish that get out of the nets.

There are those dolphins that do take part in individualized hunting.  They may be in small subgroups too of just a few dolphins. They have to move in various directions in order to make sure they can get food. It looks uncoordinated and unorganized. Sometimes, group random feeding also occurs with  chaos.

However, most of the time, group random feeding does have some direction to it. There are several subgroups of individuals and they create a very cohesive overall strategy to get the food with ease. By going in opposite directions, the prey can become confused and has very little chance of escaping.

The concept of cooperative feeding involves driving the schools of fish to the shallow areas of the water. Sometimes, this is to the coast or it could be to some type of barrier or even a subgroup of the dolphins. Circular cooperative feeding has been observed with the larger pods of dolphins. They divide into subgroups and then form circles and take part in rapid diving. They will surround schools of fish this way and continue to reduce the overall size of that circle before they take part in consuming what they have surrounded.

Something very similar is the crossing cooperative feeding. This involves the dolphins moving in a cross pattern with groups of them swimming different directions. This allows the fish to be in the middle of the routes that the dolphins have created. Such a strategy usually is a good one to use around the rocky shores and in the shallow areas of small bays.

The use of a zig zag cooperative feeding is more strategic but it can help to get the food with less energy by the dolphins. This type of feeding effort isn’t seen very often though. It usually occurs with very cohesive movements with the dolphins all moving in the same direction and then quickly switching and moving back the other way with a distance of about 100 meters for the zig zag pattern.

Dolphins are seemingly very intelligent, so they have the option to create different methods that fit their feeding needs. They have been seen mixing two or more of the mentioned feeding strategies into one session to get results. The ability to create such variations with ease and to create new formations is very interesting to observe. The level of cooperation it takes among the dolphins in the pod is extensive.

Some behaviors seem to be more evident in a given pod than others when it comes to feeding. Part of this stems from the strategies that they have learned work very well in that given location. However, it is also the result of the older dolphins teaching these feeding methods to the newer members of the pod over time.

All these factors combined have lead to some interesting stories about dolphin culture and human culture not being all that separate and even proof of bonding between us adds more fuel to that fire.

Indeed, the anecdotal evidence of this inter-species bonding is fascinating. They can occur both in the wild and in captivity. In the wild, some dolphins have been seen rounding up schools of fish to indicate to the fishermen where to place their nets. There are also amazing stories of dolphins coming to the rescue of divers or boaters that have experienced troubles.

In captivity, a great deal of interaction can occur between dolphins and humans. Some of it is for learning about the behaviors and the intelligence of the dolphins. The interaction can also be for performing purposes in marine parks. There are also interactions that take place as a form of physical and emotional therapy for the dolphins.

There are some controversial facilities where dolphins are assisting with therapeutic healing. This can be for individuals that have disabilities or who have suffered some type of trauma. There have been studies that show the dolphins can be a good solution for reducing mild to moderate forms of depression in some individuals. However, there was no way to prove if the results were any better than less expensive programs with animals such as cats, dogs, or horses.

Nowadays, dolphins are seen as a marker for the health of our oceans’ ecosystems. If dolphins show signs of trouble, then the entire food chain that they are indeed at the top of is in trouble.  To appreciate and ultimately conserve the dolphin, we are also conserving every single organism that the dolphins depend on for survival. From the oceanic habitat itself to the smallest phytoplankton, all the way up to the dolphin. Everything is connected, and everything includes us. If we are to continue to use the ocean as a resource for our own survival, we must first conserve and protect the very components that it is comprised of.

No matter what side of the fence you’re on, there’s no doubt that dolphins, as they have been for countless millennia, will continue to be an integral part of human history and a constant fixture of our culture!