Even nonprimates are known to be capable of learning from another member of their own species—culture is not uniquely human. Bird songs, for instance, may vary regionally because juveniles learn the song from local adults. In a famous case, shown in Fig. 24.18a, small birds called blue tits (Parus caeruleus) in Britain learned from each other how to peck through the aluminum caps of milk bottles left on doorsteps by milkmen to reach the rich cream at the top of the milk. Presumably, one individual discovered accidentally how to peck through a milk bottle cap and the others then imitated the action.

Nor is teaching, one way in which culture is transmitted, limited to humans. In teaching, one individual tailors the information available to another in order to facilitate learning. Teaching and imitation together make learning highly efficient. Adult meerkats teach young meerkats how to handle prey by giving them the opportunity to interact with live prey (Fig. 24.18b).

The most sophisticated example of nonhuman culture is shown by chimpanzees. Detailed studies of several geographically isolated populations have revealed 39 culturally transmitted behaviors, such as ways of using tools to catch insects, which are specific to a particular population (Fig. 24.18c). West African Chimpanzees in Guinea and the Ivory Coast both use tools to help them harvest the same species of army ants for food (and avoid the painful defensive bites of the ants), but each population has its own distinct way of doing this. Chimpanzees, then, are like us in having regional variation in culture.

Despite the cultural achievements of other species, it is clear that culture in Homo sapiens is very far removed from anything seen in the natural world. We are amazingly adept at imitation, learning, and acquiring culture. Teaching, learning, and cultural transmission all benefit from another extraordinary human attribute, language.