The effect of habitat health and environmental change on cultural diversity and richness in animals

There is increasing evidence that habitat decline via fragmentation or species loss can lead to loss of cultural diversity, complexity, or richness in non-human animals. For example, a reduction in local bird species richness leads lyrebirds to sing less complex song, while great apes living in fragmented landscapes have smaller cultural repertoires. However, the link between animal culture and local ecology remains understudied, and the potentially complex interactions between ongoing ecological change and animal culture are poorly understood. Here, we review the current state of knowledge on how ecology influences animal culture, focusing on vocal communication and foraging behaviour. We identify key factors affecting cultural patterning, including direct effects (e.g., environmental variability) and indirect effects (e.g., connectivity). We then review the emerging evidence for the effects of environmental change on culture, identifying three major threatening processes: habitat fragmentation, habitat degradation and urbanisation. Finally, we develop a predictive framework for the effect of these threatening processes on animal culture, and highlight how the loss of cultural diversity and complexity can lead to fitness costs with conservation implications. DOI https://doi.org/10.32942/X21634 Subjects Life Sciences

Animal Culture, Social learning, conservation, Anthropogenic Change, social learning, conservation, anthropogenic change Dates Published: 2025-02-13 22:34 Last Updated: 2025-02-14 03:34 License CC-BY Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Additional Metadata Data and Code Availability Statement: Not applicable Language: English