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Animal Learning and Animal Culture: Some Examples
Here's a list of examples of animal learning and animal cultural behaviors:
- Dogs can learn word meanings after a single exposure (called fast mapping, which is how children pick up vocabulary so quickly) and fetch specific objects from verbal commands only.
- Chimps, bonobos, and gorillas, with a lot of training, can learn to associate some words with some objects. (However, they don’t even begin to “get” the symbolic essence of language.)
- Capuchin monkeys can learn to use money. Male capuchins even purchase sex with money.
- Ravens and apes deliberately cheat or fool each other when it’s advantageous.
- Chimpanzees use tools and teach tool-making and tool-use to other chimpanzees.
- Crows make and use tools without being taught by other crows or by humans.
- Male zebra finches are aware of the social relationships of others of their species, and modify their relationships with females accordingly.
- Baboons can transmit local baboon cultural practices to outsider baboons who join the troop.
- If you whisper the right things in your horse’s ear, you can lead him to water and make him float on his back.