Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda.
Curr Biol. 2010 Jul 13;20(13):1171-5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2010.04.037. Epub 2010 Jun 3.
Evidence has accumulated in recent years indicating that traditions are not a unique feature of human societies but may be common in primates and some other mammals. However, most documented cases remain contentious because observational studies of free-living animals suffer from interpretive weaknesses, whereas social diffusion experiments performed in captivity may not reflect conditions found in nature. Here we use experiments under natural conditions to demonstrate that wild banded mongooses (Mungos mungo) pass preferences for one of two possible foraging techniques on to the next generation through contextual imitation. Notably, both techniques coexisted within the same groups and were transmitted concurrently between adults and pups, which form close one-to-one associations during the period of pup dependency. This experimental demonstration of a foraging tradition in wild mammals provides critical evidence to support previous accounts of traditions in nonhuman animals based on distribution patterns of natural behaviors. Moreover, our data provide the first experimental demonstration of imitation in wild mammals and, contrary to common assumption, show that social learning need not lead to an increased behavioral homogeneity within groups.
近年来，越来越多的证据表明，传统并非人类社会所特有的，而可能在灵长类动物和一些其他哺乳动物中普遍存在。然而，由于对自由生活动物的观察研究存在解释上的弱点，大多数有记录的案例仍然存在争议，而在圈养条件下进行的社会扩散实验可能无法反映自然界中发现的情况。在这里，我们利用自然条件下的实验证明，野生斑鬣狗（Mungos mungo）通过情境模仿将对两种可能觅食技术之一的偏好传递给下一代。值得注意的是，这两种技术在同一群体中同时存在，并在成年斑鬣狗和幼崽之间同时传播，幼崽在依赖期与成年斑鬣狗形成一对一的密切关系。这一在野生哺乳动物中进行觅食传统的实验证明，为基于自然行为分布模式的非人类动物传统的先前解释提供了关键证据。此外，我们的数据首次在野生哺乳动物中证明了模仿的存在，与普遍的假设相反，它表明社会学习不一定会导致群体内部行为的同质化增加。
