Research areas
"The true biologist deals with life, with teeming boisterous life, and learns something from it, learns that the first rule of life is living"
John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez
Follow me on Twitter: @_lrendell
I am a Reader in Biology affiliated with the Scottish Ocean Institute, Sea Mammal Research Unit, the Centre for Biological Diversity, the Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, and the Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences.
I have broad research interests, largely centred around the evolution of learning, behaviour and communication, with a special focus on marine mammals.
Latest paper(s)
Individuals exhibit consistent differences in behaviour and related cognitive performance. ?Cognitive styles?-based hypotheses suggest the trade-off between speed and accuracy is an important factor where an individual's behavioural traits and linked decision speeds may account for its cognitive performance. The expected relationship between accuracy and decision speed, however, is not always clear and some studies have suggested that faster individuals do not suffer the expected cost to accuracy. We trained archerfish, Toxotes chatareus, to shoot at artificial targets for food, and then conducted a visual discrimination study to test the cognitive styles hypothesis. As expected, archerfish showed repeatable differences in latency to shoot and consistently fast individuals were quicker to achieve initial learning criteria than slower individuals. Repeated tests revealed an inverse relationship between discrimination accuracy and speed, with slower individuals having greater accuracy in initial trials on each day, supporting the cognitive styles hypothesis. Taken together, our results support the hypothesis that speed?accuracy trade-offs can underlie some observed interindividual differences in cognition.
The habitat use of marine megafauna emerges from the complex interplay between access to patchy and variable food resources and several intrinsic biological factors, such as the interaction with conspecifics and offspring care, resulting in dynamic distribution patterns. In this study, we used monitoring data collected over two study periods (2003?2008 and 2012?2018) to assess the habitat use, trend in local occurrence, and change in distribution of sperm whales, Physeter macrocephalus, around the Balearic Islands (Spain), one of the few recognised breeding and feeding grounds for the ?Endangered? population in the Mediterranean Sea. Results suggest that overall the occurrence of sperm whales in the area has been increasing over time. Animals were found to associate with distinct bathymetric features, but the mechanisms generating these relationships, and the underlying oceanographic processes within this habitat, remained uncertain. Sperm whale distribution also underwent a significant shift between the two study periods, with an increased occurrence in the Mallorca channel and north of Menorca, which further points towards a dynamic use of the broader bathymetric range preferred around the archipelago. Finally, our analyses highlighted that single animals and groups used areas with different characteristics, with groups preferring deeper, warmer waters characterised by lower sea level anomaly, which resulted in some fine-scale spatial segregation. The results of this study shed light on the mechanisms underpinning the biogeography and complex social system of the species, and support the design of targeted conservation measures in this important breeding and feeding ground.
Book
Our book, The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins is even available at Amazon! Hear it discussed on BBC Radio 4's "Start the Week". Listen to a podcast of a discussion between myself and author Phillip Hoare at the LSE Philosophy Forum here
Research
Sperm whale society and ecology
I have been studying the ecology, communication and societies of sperm whales, the largest of the toothed whales, showing how long lasting social groups use distinctive vocal dialects that appear to be culturally transmitted. Part of this work is my involvement in running the Balearics Sperm Whale Project and as a collaborator of the Dominica Sperm Whale Project.
Culture in whales and dolphins
In whales and dolphins we find examples of both complex communication and apparently widespread social learning, a simple form of culture. I am using statistical models to assess the evidence for social learning in wild cetaceans.
Learning in archerfish
Archerfish have the highly specialised hunting tactic of shooting down prey with water jets. The dexterity and accuracy with which they do this has made them a model system in visual cognition. We are studying their shooting behaviour and learning to understand how this adaptation has interacted with their cognition.
Human social learning
I use experimental approaches to understand how we negotiate the trade-offs involved in deciding whether to use social information to make simple decisions, as a window into how we have evolved to make best use of our cultural inheritance.
Evolutionary modelling
I also use evolutionary simulation models to understand how these processes like social learning might have evolved, and how they might be related to the evolution of other kinds of behaviour, such as cooperation and niche-construction.
East Coast Marine Mammal Acoustic Study (ECOMMAS)
We are deploying passive listening buoys along the Scottish coastline in collaboration with Marine Scotland Science to monitor the impact of coastal windfarm development and also to give insight into acoustic behaviour of marine mammals.
Outreach
We value outreach work highly. Here are some links to some recent activities that myself and other lab members have been involved with:
https://research.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2020/03/19/humpback-whales-remixed/
https://www.dundeesciencecentre.org.uk/sea-symphonies; https://synergy.st-andrews.ac.uk/seasymphonies/
https://events.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/fringe-of-gold-biomusic/
An approach to academic life: 12 guidelines for survival
Alumni
Dr Luca Lamoni completed his PhD "The role of individual behaviour in the collective cultural evolution of humpback whale songs? in 2018
Dr Ellen Garland held her Newton International Fellowship in our group from 2015 to 2017.
Dr Kaitlin Palmer completed her PhD "Large-Scale and Long-Term Passive Acoustic Monitoring of Coastal Bottlenose Dolphins" in 2017
Dr Elena Miu completed her PhD ?Understanding human culture : theoretical and experimental studies of cumulative culture? in 2017
Dr Charlotte Dunn finished her PhD "Insights into Blainville's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) communication" in January 2015
Dr Thomas Morgan completed his PhD, co-supervised with Kevin Laland and titled "Experimental studies of human social learning and its evolution" in December 2013
Dr Laurel Fogarty completed her PhD, co-supervised with Kevin Laland and titled "From social learning to culture: Mathematical and computational models of cultural evolution" in June 2012
Dr Ricardo Antunes completed his PhD, co-supervised with Phil Hammond and Jonathan Gordon, and titled "Variation in sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) coda vocalizations and social structure in the North Atlantic Ocean" in March 2009
PhD supervision
- Natalie Sinclair
- Vanessa Simons
- Franca Eichenberger
- Alexander South
- Dagmar Der Weduwen
Selected publications
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Coda repertoire and vocal clans of sperm whales in the western Atlantic Ocean
Simões Amorim, T. O., Rendell, L., Di Tulio, J., Secchi, E. R., Castro, F. R. & Andriolo, A., Jun 2020, In : Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 160, 8 p., 103254.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article
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Cognitive styles: speed?accuracy trade-offs underlie individual differences in archerfish
Jones, N. A. R., Webster, M., Newport, C., Templeton, C. N., Schuster, S. & Rendell, L., Feb 2020, In : Animal Behaviour. 160, p. 1-14 14 p.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article
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Flexible learning, rather than inveterate innovation or copying, drives cumulative knowledge gain
Miu, E., Gulley, N., Laland, K. N. & Rendell, L., 5 Jun 2020, In : Science Advances. 6, 23, 10 p., eaaz0286.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article
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Vocal sequences in narwhals (Monodon monoceros)
Walmsley, S., Rendell, L. E., Hussey, N. & Marcoux, M., Feb 2020, In : Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 147, 2, p. 1078-1091Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article
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Animal cultures matter for conservation
Brakes, P., Dall, S. R. X., Aplin, L. M., Bearhop, S., Carroll, E. L., Ciucci, P., Fishlock, V., Ford, J. K. B., Garland, E. C., Keith, S. A., McGregor, P. K., Mesnick, S. L., Noad, M. J., Notarbartolo di Sciara, G., Robbins, M. M., Simmonds, M. P., Spina, F., Thornton, A., Wade, P. R., Whiting, M. J., Williams, J., Rendell, L., Whitehead, H., Whiten, A. & Rutz, C., 8 Mar 2019, In : Science. 363, 6431, p. 1032-1034 5 p.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article
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Causes and consequences of female centrality in cetacean societies
Rendell, L. E., Cantor, M., Gero, S., Whitehead, H. & Mann, J., Sep 2019, In : Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B, Biological Sciences. 374, 1780, 13 p., 20180066.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Review article
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Habitat use of a coastal delphinid population investigated using passive acoustic monitoring
Palmer, K., Brookes, K. L., Davies, I. M., Edwards, E. & Rendell, L. E., 6 Sep 2019, In : Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. 29, S1, p. 254-270Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article
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Habitat use of culturally distinct Galápagos sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus clans
Eguiguren, A., Pirotta, E., Cantor, M., Rendell, L. & Whitehead, H., 17 Jan 2019, In : Marine Ecology Progress Series. 609, p. 257-270Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article
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Migratory convergence facilitates cultural transmission of humpback whale song
Owen, C., Rendell, L., Constantine, R., Noad, M. J., Allen, J., Andrews, O., Garrigue, C., Poole, M. M., Donnelly, D., Hauser, N. & Garland, E. C., 4 Sep 2019, In : Royal Society Open Science. 6, 9, 15 p., 190337.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article
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Multi-scale analysis reveals changing distribution patterns and the influence of social structure on the habitat use of an endangered marine predator, the sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus in the Western Mediterranean Sea
Pirotta, E., Brotons, J. M., Cerdà, M., Bakkers, S. & Rendell, L. E., 18 Nov 2019, In : Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. In press, 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal ? Article