How human impact threatens animal cultures
April 07, 2025
Discover how human impact threatens animal cultures and what it means for our understanding of behavior. Researchers highlight the importance of preserving these insights for future conservation efforts.
Image Credit: Falotico, Luncz
Our environment is changing rapidly, largely as a result of human activities, leading to a significant decline in biodiversity. According to researchers from the University of Victoria and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, this decline does not only affect animal life, but also our understanding of their behavior, including tool use.
The study is published in the journal Science.
"Cultural behaviors range from the songs of whales to the tool use of primates," says Ammie Kalan of the University of Victoria. "These adaptations to environmental change not only benefit the animals, but also provide important insights into the origins of behavior and learning across species. However, shrinking global animal populations pose a challenge to what we can still hope to learn."