In addition to genes, there is actually a second way for organisms to pass on information, that is, cultural behavior, or it can also be called customary behavior. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Yes, many animals have the same customs as humans.

Macaques, for example, can have very different feeding habits in different places, even if they live in similar environments.

In some places, macaques use their hands to dig up the rhizomes of plants.

Others don't do this at all, even if they live in the same area as many of the same species. However, they seem to be blind, that is, blind.

Changing to the pattern of mutual harm, it is estimated that in the eyes of those macaques that feed on rhizomes, there is no difference between other people of the same kind who ignore them and are mentally retarded. Although the other party may also discriminate against them, in turn, mocking, "You are actually digging the soil, it's too low".

However, it is not only the feeding habit that many birds have developed the phenomenon of "dialect".

For example, different groups of white-crowned finch, even if they are separated by several kilometers, may have different local languages. Although in the eyes of us humans, there is no difference between their chirping, isn't it just a lot of chirping. In fact, it is very likely that this is the case when white-crowned finches from different places interact with each other.

"Brother, Ni carved up ruthlessly. ”

"Although Ning gave birth to his mother, oh Zhen Ma Hall does not move. ”

......

(One is Shanghainese, the other is Cantonese, guess what?)

They do this because they have two ways of learning.

One is imitation learning.

As the name suggests, it refers to the way animals learn to observe the behavior of other individuals in order to improve their own behavior. There is a very classic idiom, "Mu monkey and crown".

Monkeys imitate humans with hats, which is imitation learning.

Many animals often observe what others do first, and then do it themselves.

However, imitation learning generally occurs mainly among animals of the same species. Herd animals, on the other hand, tend to have this tendency more than non-herd animals.

The other is imprint learning.

It's about a learning ability that is unique to young animals.

In the early years of an animal's life, there is often a time when it is very sensitive to its surroundings. One of the last facts we are familiar with is that the chicks that have just hatched will follow the objects they see at first sight, and even appear to treat people as parents

In fact, this is imprint learning.

It has a great impact on the life of the animal, because in the natural environment, the parents of the corresponding animal live with their offspring in a specific brooding location. Through the imprint peak learning period, the offspring can learn and remember many of the things that are most important to them in this short period of time.

The mastery of song in many birds is inseparable from the sensitive period of learning.

If it can't hear the cries of its own people in the first few weeks of its life, I'm afraid it will never learn again. And for their reproduction, courtship, and even survival, the ability to chirp is very important.

Dogs also have this phenomenon.

At the peak of imprint sensitivity, only a short period of contact with humans is enough to make dogs think that humans are part of their society and are willing to spend a long time together to form intimate partnerships. We often hear people say that "this dog is too big to raise", but there is some truth to it.

In addition to these, imprint learning has even profoundly influenced the courtship of many animals.

In some experiments, birds that imprinted on humans often courted humans as they matured. There is a bird called the banma finch, which will not only court, but even try to mate with the human hand by virtue of the imprint left by its youth......

So, if you come across a bird on the street that is a bow, a woman one of your parts, don't be surprised, you may not know which animal lab has slipped out.

Imitative learning and imprinting learning are two learning styles that are completely different from other learning behaviors.

Whether it is the two brothers of conditioned reflexes, habituation, trial-and-error learning, latent learning, and even relatively advanced epiphany learning, it is different from them.

Because they are just a way for a single individual to improve themselves.

Imitation learning and imprint learning can be a way for a group to improve themselves.

If it is an animal such as a tiger or leopard that only has brooding behavior, its advantages are not much more prominent. But for group animals, the cultural inheritance created by the fusion of these two learning behaviors is a new starting point.

Just like the third piece of metal in Levi's hand.

When there was a monkey on the island, he learned the skill of smashing shells. By mimicking its behavior, entire groups learn this skill. And the descendants of this group of monkeys, either through imprints or through imitation, will continue to pass it on. As long as seashells remain, they are an additional source of food. This is a huge improvement for their own survival.

Don't underestimate this breakthrough, in fact it could even create an entirely new species.

The evolution of sea otters, which have a lot of hair, is likely to be related to their ability to use stones as tools.

They are a group of otters that enter the sea.

Compared to other marine mammals, sea otters are the latest to enter the ocean.

As a consequence of being late, most of the food in the sea has been exploited by other organisms, leaving them with only a few leftovers.

Maybe you don't even have leftovers, so you can only drink the northwest wind.

Because when they first enter the ocean, baby sea otters must have a long period of adaptation. During this time, they were not yet specialized in their bodies, and they could not compete with those who came first, such as fur seals, sea lions, and seals, which are also marine mammals.

But after mastering the tools of "stone-smashing", the clever sea otters have developed another world.

Their staple food is mainly shellfish, abalone, sea urchins, and crabs, all of which have very hard shells and few spines that other animals hunt.

Due to the lack of competition from others, sea otters can live a nourishing life in the sea.

That's what culture means so much.

If an organism were to feed on shellfish like sea otters, it would have to evolve over a long period of time. After millions of generations of mutations, it is possible to develop an open-shell organ.

But the culture of the community, another legacy of memory in the population, has greatly shortened the process.

Living in a group with a corresponding custom inheritance, by imitating and imprinting the actions of other individuals, it is easy to master many skills that have been passed down from generation to generation in the family group.

And among the creatures with cultural heritage, there is another special ability.

That is, those exceptionally good individuals in the family group can pass on their intelligence to later generations through ways other than genes.

Their inventions can be perpetuated from generation to generation through the culture imprinted on the group. And, through the same genetic experience of "natural selection, survival of the fittest", the good and the inferior continue to be saved.

The biggest difference between humans and other animals is that Li Wei believes that it is precisely because he has been on the road of "ethnic culture" for too long. By the time we were halfway through, the other animals were just getting started.

Without the inheritance of "ethnic culture", language may not be produced at all.

It is only when a cultural heritage is established that animals will need more advanced signaling systems to record more information, rather than the low-level way of "opening their mouths and baring their teeth and roaring twice".

The ability to make tools is much the same.

Only under the premise of cultural inheritance can human beings' ability to make and use tools be continuously enriched and improved, and more varieties can be born. By the time the human species was officially created, other animals could no longer compare with humans.

Of course, the development of "ethnic culture" and the evolution of genes are also compatible with each other.

From climbing on all fours to standing on both legs, this is undoubtedly a genetic evolution. However, the empty hands have strengthened the ability to make tools, and the advantages of ethnic cultural inheritance have also been greatly improved.

The use of flames, in the early days, existed in the stage of preserving natural fires.

This complex act of taking natural fire, keeping it in the cave, and keeping it burning requires the assistance of an entire population. Compared with genes, I am afraid that ethnic culture plays a greater role. But cooked food, which is heated by a flame, is more digestible than raw food, thus providing the soil for the genetic evolution of humans, and the increase in brain volume is related to it.

However, the continuous development of human culture has gone beyond the significance of genetic evolution after several stages, such as "standing with both hands upright", "the emergence of language", "the use of fire", "the use of bows and arrows and spears for long-distance projectiles", "the emergence of writing, including corresponding inventions such as the birth of paper", "metal smelting", "scientific thought", and "the Internet".

When we can edit the genes ourselves.

Talking about raw natural selection, don't you feel very low. It takes millions of years to develop a good trait, and this method is simply outdated......

If genes are the first inheritance of mankind, it comes from billions of years of natural evolution. That ethnic culture, the second inheritance we received, is still young, but the rate of appreciation is unusually rapid.

If you are an ordinary office worker at the beginning of the century who sold his house and bought the original shares of Tencent with foresight, I am afraid that you can understand a little bit of what these two legacies mean to mankind.

Maybe in the past ten years, your salary income is not much different from that of ordinary people.

But the skyrocketing stock price and dividends are enough to make you a billionaire. Because the original shares, which were only worth one dollar back then, have now multiplied 160,000 times!

You who are among the local tyrants, looking back at those guys who can be happy and messy if they receive an extra 500 a month, you naturally have a sense of superiority. This is perhaps the biggest difference between humans and other animals.