Agenda

When innovations arise in human societies, they can spread rapidly through social networks to form new cultural traits––a vital component of our success. A long history of research has now established that other animals can also exhibit culture. But can cultural traits in animals also emerge and change in response to social and environmental drivers? And can culture be an important determinant of behavioural flexibility in other species? Here, I summarize how my recent research addresses these questions in wild, urban-adapted sulphur-crested cockatoos. My studies include various approaches including social network studies, controlled wild experiments and large-scale citizen science. Altogether, this work highlights how the experience of others can have profound implications for how animals learn about and exploit their environments, and how social and cognitive processes interact to determine behavioural responses to novel environments.