From The Great Planet:
The research of Whiten and his colleagues demonstrates that there is a flexible, cultural transmission network in the wild that transcends genetics, built entirely on social learning, observation, and apprenticeship. From bumblebees teaching one another new techniques to extract pollen from flowers, to Japanese macaques washing sweet potatoes in seawater and spreading this culinary tradition throughout their colony, this system accomplishes what genes cannot: rapid communal adaptation. This is not a biological impulse; it is observed, shared, and generationally transmitted wildlife culture.
To truly grasp the vital importance of this cultural transmission and the collapse of the “genetic reflex” myth, one only needs to look at a 2018 study published in the journal Science (Jesmer et al.) that profoundly shook the field of conservation biology.
More here.
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