596 | Whales and Dolphins: Sentience and Suffering can allow a species to quickly adopt to new environments as animals learn new ways of life from one another The spread of scavenging from human whalers and feeding from long lines by killer whales noted previously are two examples in which social learning likely helped spread an activity which some humans found extremely annoying When culture becomes a major determinant of behavior, as it appears to have done with killer whales and sperm whales, it can take dramatic forms, as a look at human behavior so clearly shows Cultural conservatism and cultural opportunism are joined by group-specific cultural badges and maladaptive behaviors We not know why groups of apparently healthy whales and dolphins mass strand on beaches, but it seems likely that a usually sensible cultural imperative such as stay with the group whatever happens plays a part Thus we need to view the behavior of cultural animals with a different perspective, and this must carry through when we are implementing conservation measures This came to a head with the transborder southern resident killer whales, whose small population in the inland waterways between British Columbia and Washington was declining They differ from the northern residents north of British Columbia, a healthier population, by only one known base-pair of genes in their genetic code, but also by a host of cultural traits Should the southern residents be specifically protected under endangered species legislation? The Canadian listing committee (COSEWIC) thought so, and listed them as endangered The U.S equivalent, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), thought not, and listed all killer whales in the area as depleted However, after protests and legal chal- lenges, the NMFS changed its perspective and upgraded the southern residents to endangered in 2006 Cultural species may, through a new and rapidly spreading form of behavior, quickly become embroiled in a conflict with humans or, through their cultural conservatism, they may not react appropriately when we change their environment But cultures, like genes, have evolved through natural selection, and they mostly have an important role in allowing animals to live their lives Just as we seek to preserve genetic biodiversity, we must preserve the cultural diversity of such species, so that the cultured species of the ocean, like sperm and killer whales, have the knowledge to survive when we change their habitat Further Reading Chilvers, B L., and Corkeron, P J 2001 Trawling and bottlenose dolphins’ social structure Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 268:1901–1905 Rendell, L., and Whitehead, H 2001 Culture in whales and dolphins Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24:309–324 Richerson, P J., and Boyd, R 2004 Not by genes alone: How culture transformed human evolution Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press Whitehead, H., Rendell, L., Osborne, R W., and Würsig, B 2004 Culture and conservation of non-humans with reference to whales and dolphins: review and new directions Biological Conservation 120:431–441 Hal Whitehead WHALES AND DOLPHINS: SENTIENCE AND SUFFERING Whales, dolphins and porpoises, collectively known as cetaceans, are remarkable nonhuman animals that exhibit