From rumbles to rituals: Scientists map the cultures of the animal kingdom

Relocating elephants to fresh herds can boost genetics and social health – but what if the animals can’t “talk” to their new hosts?

Field biologists have discovered that elephant groups separated by only a few hundred miles emit subtly different low-frequency rumbles. Those dialects might complicate friendships, alliances, or alarm calls when animals are translocated.

The puzzle is part of a broader realization that many species possess local traditions – learned behaviors that function much like human culture.

To help researchers explore that idea, scientists at the University of Arizona have launched the first open-access, global catalog of animal cultures.

Mapping animal cultures

The Animal Culture Database brings together hundreds of peer-reviewed reports on socially learned behaviors – from whales’ evolving migration routes to chimpanzees’ stone-tool know-how.

Kiran Basava is the paper’s lead author and a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Arizona.

“There is a consensus among animal behavior researchers that cultural traditions and socially learned behaviors are important to conservation,” said Basava. “There are decades of research investigating these behaviors across different species that are scattered throughout the literature.”

“We synthesized that work to facilitate creative research and discussions about how culture is defined across different species, as well as how animals respond to different environmental disturbances caused by humans.”

Animal culture by region

The database centers on an interactive world map dotted with pins. Click on a marker and you can read about orangutans’ nesting tricks in Borneo, humpback whales’ complex songs off Tonga, or urban crows that drop nuts at traffic lights so cars will crack them open.

A search panel lets visitors filter by species, behavior type, or geographic region. For example, it reveals how rats in European forests learned to peel pinecones, or how certain birds remodeled mating dances after wildfires changed their habitat.

Building a living archive

To assemble the resource, Basava and colleagues combed through thousands of journal articles published over several decades.

The experts screened more than 1,000 promising papers. From those, they coded 121 into the pilot version – covering 30 mammalian, 30 avian, and one insect species. The team is adding 600 more studies and will soon let other scientists upload their own findings.

Study co-author Cristian Román-Palacios, an assistant professor of information science, said the tool could transform how researchers study cultural evolution.

“You can investigate the origins of culture by not just tracing it back to humans, but by seeing how much variance there is between different species and asking what drives those differences,” explained Professor Román-Palacios.

“Culture is not just a human phenomenon, and this database can help investigate what drives culture across the animal kingdom.”

Cultural loss risks extinction

Understanding animal culture is more than academic curiosity. Conservationists are realizing that an elephant dialect, a whale migration route, or a songbird melody can be as crucial as genetics for a population’s survival.

Human-driven habitat loss, noise pollution, and climate change threaten to erase those traditions. If relocated elephants cannot communicate with resident herds, or if dam construction blocks a salmon run taught across generations, restoration projects may fail.

By pooling case studies in one searchable hub, the database helps practitioners identify culturally important behaviors that need protection – much like UNESCO’s list of human cultural heritage.

The data can also reveal patterns: Are populations with richer cultural repertoires more resilient to disturbance? Do species that lose key traditions decline faster?

Science meets animal tradition

The experts hope educators will use the site to teach evolutionary biology, while data scientists mine the entries for global trends. Basava envisions adding tools to visualize how behaviors spread over time, akin to epidemiological models for disease.

Future iterations may incorporate audio clips of vocalizations or video of tool use, creating a multimedia atlas of animal ingenuity.

The designers also plan multilingual interfaces to attract contributions from researchers worldwide, including Indigenous observers whose knowledge often predates academic studies.

Culture isn’t just human

The project resonates with a paradigm shift in biology: culture is no longer viewed as uniquely human.

From dolphins that pass down signature whistles to capuchin monkeys that adopt local grooming fashions, social learning pervades the animal kingdom. Recognizing those parallels can inform debates about animal welfare and cognitive rights, the authors note.

And it may reshape how humans see ourselves. If elephants currently need a translator, perhaps conservation must consider not just where animals live. It should also account for how they live – their languages, crafts, and customs forged over millennia.

For now, the Animal Culture Database offers anyone with an internet connection a front-row seat to those hidden worlds. The database preserves animal-taught traditions and reminds us that culture extends beyond just the human species.

The study is published in the journal Nature Scientific Data.

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