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creative animals

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Of all the many millions of species on the planet, only humans have sequenced genomes, invented smart phones and composed moonlight sonatas. To an evolutionary biologist like me, who studies the complex behaviour of animals, this is an uncomfortable observation that demands an evolutionary explanation. Researchers assumed that animals lacked the intelligence to devise novel solutions, and that this creative deficit accounted for the gulf between their behaviour and human technological achievements. More recent research into animal behaviour suggests otherwise. Animals constantly devise novel innovations, and research into the nature and consequences of their creativity helps to explain how our own species evolved to be so very different. Those of other animal innovation researchers, have established beyond doubt that humans do not have a monopoly on creativity. Animals commonly invent new patterns of behaviour, modify their existing behaviour to new contexts, or respond to social and ecological changes in novel ways. Years of careful study means researchers can count up the number of innovations produced by a species and quantify how creative it is. Not all animals are inventive, and birds andprimates are more likely to be innovative when they have bigger brains. Research has shown innovative animals are more likely to evolve new species, because creativity opens up new niches and triggers evolutionary events. It is probably no coincidence that the Galapagos islands’ finches, whose diversity helped Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution, are members of a highly innovative superfamily of birds called the Emberizoidea. This group has evolved many different species in a process that may have begun when different birds began to develop innovative ways of feeding. Research shows innovative species of birds are more likely to survive and establish themselves when introduced into new locations. These are the primate species with the largest brains, that are the heaviest tool users, have the broadest diets, and exhibit the most complex forms of learning and cognition. Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind I argue that these associations are no coincidence. Non-human animals possess simple cultures and can develop novel foraging techniques or ways of communicating that spread through social learning. Once a species can share information very accurately, even very modest amounts of innovation rapidly lead to massive cumulative culture.