social learning

Social learning is widely thought to be something done only by species with social lives. However, recent research is showing that even more solitary species participate in social learning. A team of researchers from Australia tested the ability of a solitary shark species to learn through observing and mimicking members of their own species. They found that these particular sharks are capable of learning in this way, which contributes to our understanding of these animals’ lives and what we can do to conserve them.