Society and culture in the deep and open ocean
--the sperm whale

Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, CANADA (at Forschungsstelle für Ornithologie der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Andechs in 2000-2001 on sabbatical leave)

Vortrag am 16. Jamuar 2001 in der "Alten Apotheke"

Zusammenfassung

The sperm whale, a wide-ranging squid-eater of the deep ocean, has the largest brain on Earth. Female sperm whales form complex societies based upon stable, largely matrilineal units, within which there is communal care for the young. Units share ranges with one another and frequently interact, but seem to maintain distinctive, stable, cultures. Matrilineally-transmitted culture may explain the curiously low mtDNA diversity of the sperm whale and three other whale species with matrilineal social systems. These societies and cultures evolved in a habitat without refuges from predators, with few barriers, cheap movement, and high environmental variability over large scales.

Empfohlene Literatur

RENDELL, L. u. H. WHITEHEAD (In press):
Culture in whales and dolphins.
Behav. Brain. Sci.
(Reprint available at http://www.dal.ca/~whitelab/lr/bbs.htm)

WEILGART, L. S., H. WHITEHEAD u. K. PAYNE (1996):
A colossal convergence.
Am. Sci. 84, 278-287

WHITEHEAD, H. (1998):
Cultural selection and genetic diversity in matrilineal whales.
Science 282, 1708-1711

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