Why baboons don’t have culture? Phenotypic constraints on information transmission in the wild

Alecia Carter

Cambridge, Royaume-Uni
ac854@cam.ac.uk

The formation of culture in animal societies, including humans, relies on the social transmission of information among individuals in a group. While the cognitive capacities for social transmission of information appear to be present in a wide range of animal species, culture has only been described for handful of species. Whether or not a novel behaviour becomes adopted by an entire group to form a culture may depend on how individuals acquire and use social information. I attempt to establish traditions in wild baboon groups to understand how individual differences in the (i) opportunities to acquire social information and (ii) propensities to use such information may limit the formation of culture.

Recent publications:
Carter et al. 2014. Personality predicts the propensity for social learning in a wild primate. PeerJ, 2, e283.
Carter et al. Phenotypic assortment in wild primate networks: implications for the dissemination of information. Royal Society Open Science†dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.140444
Carter et al. Research questions should drive edge definitions in social network studies. Animal Behaviour in press.