Anthropologists long had considered culture—the ability to socially accumulate and transfer knowledge—strictly a human affair. But researchers had described how songbirds learn dialects and transmit them across generations, and Ford proposed that killer whale groups might do the same.
长期以来，人类学家一直把文化——社会积累和传递知识的能力——严格视为人类的事情。但研究人员描述了鸣禽是如何学习方言并代代相传的，福特指出，虎鲸群也可能这样做。
From the northern Pacific to the seas around Antarctica, killer whales also have varying diets. In Patagonia, they launch onto rocky shores and pluck seal pups off the beach. In Antarctica, killer whales flush Weddell seals off floating ice, teaming up to swamp floes and wash dinner into the drink. But the northern and southern residents are both pescatarians, and eat mostly just one species: Chinook salmon.
从北太平洋到南极洲周围的海域，虎鲸的饮食也各不相同。在巴塔哥尼亚， 它们会上岩石海岸，将海豹幼崽带离海滩。在南极洲，虎鲸会将威德尔海豹从浮冰上冲走，联合起来淹没浮冰并在水中冲洗晚餐。但北方居留型和南方居留型虎鲸都是鱼素动物，主要只吃一种鱼：奇努克鲑鱼。
Whitehead and Luke Rendell started unspooling their cultural mysteries by documenting patterns of sperm whale chatter. Whitehead spotted a trend: Roughly half made a common repertoire of calls. Their codas had similar patterns. Other units used different arrangements. These small whale units were part of something bigger—whale clans of hundreds or thousands. And each clan was speaking its own dialect.
怀特海德和卢克·伦德尔开始通过记录抹香鲸的沟通方式揭开他们的文化奥秘。怀特海德发现了一个趋势：大约有一半的鲸鱼能互相沟通。它们的尾带有相似的模式。其它鲸鱼群的则不一样。这些小型鲸鱼群是更大的鲸鱼群的一部分——成百上千的鲸鱼群。每个鲸鱼群都在说自己的方言。
Over time Whitehead, Rendell, and others also documented that whales in two distinct clans in the Galápagos had startlingly different habits. In one, whales cruised the sea in meandering formations, while in the other they swam in straighter lines. One clan stayed close to land, the other moved farther offshore. During El Niño periods, when waters warmed, whales in both clans struggled to get enough food, but one clan had a harder time than the other.
随着时间的推移，怀特海德、伦德尔和其他人也记录到，在加拉帕戈斯两个不同的鲸鱼群有着惊人不同的习性。一个鲸鱼群的鲸鱼以蜿蜒的队形在海中游弋，另一个鲸鱼群则是以直线队形游动。一个鲸鱼群靠近陆地，另一个鲸鱼群则迁往离岸更远的地方。在厄尔尼诺时期，当海水变暖时，两个鲸鱼群都在努力获得足够的食物，但一个鲸鱼群比另一个更艰难。
The idea that whales have cultures at all, let alone that they segregate themselves into cultural groups as humans do, was controversial when Whitehead and Rendell presented it in 2001. And yet whale scientists increasingly embrace their view. In 2019, more than two dozen scientists called for a sea change in global conservation. In the journal Science they urged the world to incorporate culture into wildlife management decisions.
2001年，怀特海德和伦德尔提出，鲸鱼完全有文化，更不用说它们像人类一样将自己分成不同的文化群体，当时引起了争议。然而，鲸鱼科学家越来越接受他们的观点。2019年， 二十多名科学家呼吁在全球保护方面做出重大改变。在《科学》杂志上，他们敦促全世界将文化纳入野生动物管理决策中。
图文来源 | National Geographic
翻译 | 新译科技AI+人工校对
编辑、排版 | 金诗怡
