Cultures in Cetaceans

In the marine biology world, there has always been an argument over a controversial issue, and that issue being whether or not whales and dolphins (cetaceans) can have a culture between themselves. Some scientists say that only humans can create a culture to live in because of what they believe in, but others look only at the facts and make their mind up that way. A culture is defined as shared variation in behavior that is generated and maintained by social learning, for example, through imitation or teaching. If you think about human culture, you can see that we live in families and our young learn their necessities to survive the rest of their lives through imitating their adult parents and through the older members' teachings.

1. One example of dolphins having a culture is how they too live in families called pods. Dolphin pod sizes have been counted up to about 100+ dolphins living and hunting together in one pod. Dolphins never free-lance and live on their own, but are always with others, however they do not have life long partners, but they do enjoy having sex with each other for fun and for no apparent reason.
2. Whales too live in pods but they do not nearly have as many members in their pod. When the mother gives birth to her offspring, females leave their mothers side when healthy and big/old enough to, however the male offspring stay with their mothers until death. Whales also will sometimes join pods together and create a bigger pod.
3. Another way cetaceans show they have cultures in them in through communication. Communication is essential in cultures, and both humans and cetaceans have a form of communication. Human communication is obvious through writing, verbal, and touch forms of communication. And although whales and dolphins have no written forms of communication, they do exhibit forms of verbal and touch communication. They use communication for mating, defense, and hunting purposes. One example of this is how all the blue whales in the ocean have a common mating song that they sing. Even when there is a slight change in the song, the other males pick up the change and incorporate it in the new song that they sing. If you ask me, that is just like humans across the globe picking up a fad as simple as songs or clothing styles.

I strongly believe that cetaceans promote a strong culture in their existence just like we humans have in our lives.