Do any animals besides humans have culture?
Do any animals besides humans transmit knowledge through generations?
I was thinking that perhaps the definite difference between us and other life forms would be our ability to transmit information with mechanisms other than DNA.
Answering these questions could strenghten or destroy such hypothesis.
Please tell me if there are such cases in nature.
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Culture? Perhaps.
Social structure is apparant in wolves, lions, ...
This is LEARNED behaviour (= knowledge)
Therefor, your hypothesis is destroyed.
ants
Absolutely. Some high class Japanese monkeys season their potatoes in salt water before eating.
But still, you are right. That is a unique ability that very few species take part in.
Some apes do, but we're talking about things like using rocks to crack nuts, or twigs to "fish" for termites. Also there's an orangutan who learned to wash itself with soap after watching fishermen doing the same. Pet dogs are capable of learning tricks, tho afaik no lower mammal actually passes culture on to its children.
Their social structure is instinct, not learned. If you take puppies away before they open there eyes and have them raised by themselves, they still form the same type of social structure.
That's not learned from someone else. It is discovered every generation. Same with ants on a stick. They "figure it out" instead of "learning it from an elder". That one distinction is very large. They don't have the capacity to teach the information to another primate.
You are correct. There is no specific case of one animal actively teaching something it learned to another animal. When the information is exchanged, it is only done so for other reasons. The 2nd animal sees the 1st animal do something and infers the knowledge from watching. However, the 1st animal isn't actively teaching the 2nd animal.
>Their social structure is instinct, not learned. If you take puppies away before they open there eyes and have them raised by themselves, they still form the same type of social structure.
Uh, nope. That's the whole reason I posted that example.
It's a learned behavior that only shows up in these monkeys and are passed down through generation(s).
No one is teaching it. That is the point. You can sit a chimp at an anthill and it will figure out how to get the ants on its own. A 2nd chimp doesn't learn by being taught how to do it from the 1st chimp.
There's entire research papers based on this and how it isn't knowledge being passed down. You are not grasping the critical logic to it.
>says it is teaching
>it isn't actually teaching
Octopi COULD be super super smart IF they were able to pass down everything they learned throughout their life. Unfortunately for them, the mother dies before she is able to teach her off-spring anything.
>You're wrong because I say so!
Teaching by example isn't teaching. The closest thing to teaching is the honey bee dance for telling others where food/water is. They don't lead the other bees to the location and instead communicate where the location is. However, this isn't teaching and learning, it is instinctual.
Hurrr durrr, what constitutes as teaching to you then? Mind you, strip yourself from your preconceived antropomorphized view of it.
>not understanding the differences between instinct, teaching, learning, and discovering.
What the fuck, how the fuck is teaching by example not teaching? The expression is literally teaching by example. It's a, albeit more rudimentary, form of teaching. God you're a dimwit.
They mimic the intelligence level of many people (the retarded, ignorant ones who personify animated, aping animal beasts). All of them are bugs. Some are huge bugs that creepy people have relations with.
Given they don't do anything intelligent, they cannot possibly be accredited with learning.
Again, losers will believe they're civilized rather than filthy and dirty because bitches and whores relate to animals that sniff every crotch that happens along: and lustfully sniff p and poo.
You are the retard! You are the one not understanding!
Monkeys teach each other stuff, they also learn stuff easily
(using a saw on a branch isn't instinct retard)
Is that first ape an actual robot?
Yes, the one on the left
...
That's a cool video. Very creepy and slightly depressing too.
The living ape looks kind of like, "What am I doing with my life?" after he learned the trick from his dead friend.
My guinea pigs pass on knowledge. One learned how to use the ramp to another level, while the other just sat at the top squeeking, unable to come down to the food. I saw the first one cover the second's eyes with its body, then alternating steps and squeeks, led the second one down the ramp. They both use the ramp now.