Culture in birds

In humans, culture can have a variety of meanings, from trends in music or art, to technological advances, to the ideologies and values that underpin a society. What all these meanings all have in common is that they encompass behaviours, skills and ideas that are not genetically determined, but rather learned from those around us, and shared in a group or society. Human societies also exhibit what is termed ‘cumulative cultural evolution’, when cultures build on themselves over generations of learners to exhibit more complex or effective behaviours, allowing us to go from a sled to a high-speed train, or from counting to calculus.