Just because they can't sing opera or ride a bicycle doesn't mean that animals
don't have culture. There's no better example of this than killer whales.
As one of the most brutal predators, killer whales may not fit the image of a
cultured creature. However, these beasts of the sea do display a vast range of
highly refined behaviors that appear to be driving their genetic development.
The word "culture" comes from the Latin "colere," which literally means "to
cultivate." In other words, it refers to anything that is acquired or learnt,
rather than instinctive or natural. Among human populations, culture not only
affects the way we live, but also writes itself into our genes, affecting who
we are. For instance, having spent many generations hunting the fat marine
mammals of the Arctic, the Eskimos of Greenland have developed certain genetic
adaptations that help them digest and utilize this fat-rich diet, thereby
allowing them to thrive in their cold climate.
Like humans, killer whales have colonized a range of different habitats across
the globe, occupying every ocean basin on the planet with an empire that extends
from pole to pole. As such, different populations of killer whales have had to
learn different hunting techniques in order to gain the upper hand over their local
prey. This, in turn, has a major effect on their diet, leading scientists to
speculate that the ability to learn population-specific hunting methods could be
driving the animals' genetic development.