Dr Luke Rendell

Dr Luke Rendell

Reader

Researcher profile

Phone
+44 (0)1334 46 3499
Email
ler4@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

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

ResearcherID: G-2594-2010

orcid.org/0000-0002-1121-9142 


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)

The diffusion of cooperative and solo bubble net feeding in Canadian Pacific humpback whales. Wray, J., O'Mahony, É., Baer, G., Robinson, N., Dundas, A., Gaggiotti, O., Rendell, L. & Keen, E., Jan 2026, In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 293, 2063, p. 1-12 12 p., 20252409.

Animal culture, information and behaviours acquired and shared by social learning are a form of biodiversity with intrinsic and practical value. Cooperative foraging, a mutualistic resource acquisition behaviour observed across diverse taxa, is strongly connected to social networks via behavioural states, cues and often social learning, as it typically involves high interaction rates. Understanding the distribution, diffusion and learning mechanisms of such cooperative behaviours is an important but understudied aspect of nonhuman culture. Bubble net feeding (‘bubble netting’) is a specialized foraging technique practised by certain humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) populations globally. Over 20 years in the northern Canadian Pacific, we observed the diffusion of two forms: cooperative group and independent (or ‘solo’) bubble netting. Network-based diffusion analysis—a tool to test for social learning—finds strong evidence for social learning of bubble netting when the overall social network is used, even after accounting for traits such as site fidelity and sex (10.6 × 103 to 35.4 × 103 times more support for social versus asocial learning; p < 0.0001). A homophily check using pre-acquisition association data returned ambiguous results, likely due to the inherent sociality of this cooperative foraging behaviour. Nonetheless, the rapid diffusion of bubble netting is clearly important for population viability and should inform conservation planning for this threatened population.

Confirmed vocal activity of Mediterranean monk seals in the Inner Ionian Sea Archipelago, Greece Amlin, A., Rendell, L. E., Pierantonio, N., Carmen Andrés-Hervías , C., Notarbartolo di Sciara, G., Hastie, G. D. & Gonzalvo, J., Apr 2025, In: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 157, 4, p. 3204–3213 10 p.

Mediterranean monk seals (Monachus monachus) are the world's rarest seal species, with fewer than 1000 individuals remaining across fragmented subpopulations. Monitoring this species is challenging due to their low densities and difficult-to-access habitats. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) data can be used to detect small numbers of animals over large areas, but for effective long-term PAM, it is essential to characterize the species' vocalizations throughout its range. This study provides a comprehensive description of the monk seal vocal repertoire in the Inner Ionian Sea Archipelago, Greece, and the first published documentation of the species vocalizing underwater. Acoustic recorders collected continuous data over 16 days during the breeding season in 2021. We identified 3442 calls, 1855 of which were determined to be high-quality and classified into ten call types within three broader categories. Video footage collected in 2019 and 2021 documented the seals producing five common call types, which comprised ∼87% of the recorded calls. Our findings offer insights into the structure of the monk seal vocal repertoire and lay the groundwork for long-term monitoring for this rare species using PAM, which could be an important tool for monitoring monk seals going forwards.

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.

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/

Science without borders!

An approach to academic life: 12 guidelines for survival

Alumni

Dr Nick Jones completed his PhD "Social behaviour and learning in Archerfish" in 2020.

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

  • Angela Amlin
  • Laia Garrobé Fonollosa
  • Jeanne Merindol
  • Melissa Ramsay

Selected publications

 

See more publications