CSB #2: Mongoose Tradition

Definitions

Tradition – a non-instinctive way of doing things passed down from adults to their young

Mongoose – a small carnivore that lives on the savanna

Escort – the adult mongoose that the parent mongooses hand their children over to after caring for them for a month. The small mongoose and escort are always together, with the escort parenting, teaching, and protecting the young mongoose.

Summary
Humans have traditions and so do high-intelligence animals like chimpanzees or dolphins, and scientists originally thought that lower-intelligence animals did things by instinct and did not learn from adults. However, a study involving mongooses proved that lower-intelligence animals had traditions as well. The scientists observed that the adult mongooses had two ways to break shells of food, like eggs or beetles. They either used their teeth to crack it or smashed the shell against a hard object, and each adult favored one of the two ways and used it much more than the other.  When the adult became an escort to a small mongoose, the younger would watch the adult either crack it with their teeth or smash the shell against a hard surface. The younger would usually use the same method as their escort did to open their shelled food. This behavior suggests that the mongooses do have traditions that they learn from their escorts.

Discussion 

I think that it is interesting that lower-intelligence animals have traditions because it shows that animals may be more intelligent that we thought they were. Recently, scientists have been discovering this more and more as new studies show that animals can communicate and learn from each other and their surroundings.  Scientists have found out that primates can communicate with humans using signs and that elephants mourn for their dead. This finding that animals have traditions could help scientists understand animals better and interpret their actions more accurately. Scientists could use the traditions to help endangered animals by having the animals who are better adapted teach the less adapted animals how to survive.

Questions 
Do other animals have traditions, too, or is it just mongooses?
Could traditions have an impact on evolution of species and natural selection?

Hill, Raymond P. "Mongooses Have Traditions, Too." Science Online. Facts on File, Inc., n.d. Web. 11 

     Oct. 2010. <http://www.fofweb.com/ 

     activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE40&SID=5&iPin=TSs1800088&SingleRecord=True>. 

Mongoose picture - http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE40&SID=5&iPin=SciPhoto03333&SingleRecord=True