Dear colleagues, My co-authors and I are pleased to announce our recent publication in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B: Garland EC, Corkeron P, Noad MJ, Abrahms B, Allen JA, Constantine R, Rendell L, Sousa-Lima RS, Stafford KM, Carroll EL. 2025 Culture and conservation in baleen whales. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 380: 20240133. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0133 ABSTRACT Culture, defined as information or behaviours shared within a population and acquired from conspecifics through social learning, acts as a second inheritance system which has important implications for species' ecology and evolution. Understanding the influence of social learning and culture in animals' lives is essential to planning and predicting outcomes of conservation actions. Culture plays a key role in cetaceans’ lives, and some of the best evidence for social learning has come from baleen whales (Mysticetes). The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), an international treaty operating under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has recently integrated animal culture into their conservation initiatives. An essential first step in such a conservation framework is to identify key indicators of social learning in well-studied species, which could be applied to other more elusive species. Here, as part of the UNEP CMS Expert Group on Animal Culture and Social Complexity, we first evaluate key evidence for social learning and culture in baleen whales through several case studies. We then suggest key indicators by behavioural context to assist in identifying potential cases of social learning in more elusive species generating a practical guide for future conservation assessment and management. The paper is open access and available here: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0133 It is part of the theme issue ‘Animal culture: conservation in a changing world’. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/2025/380/1925 Kind regards, Ellen ----------------------------------------------------- Dr Ellen C. Garland (she/her) Royal Society University Research Fellow Email: ecg5@st-andrews.ac.uk<mailto:ecg5@st-andrews.ac.uk> Ph: +44 (0)7478-649964 WWW: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/biology/people/ecg5 Bluesky: @ellengarland.bsky.social Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU), Scottish Oceans Institute, School of Biology, University of St Andrews Arnon I, Kirby S, Allen JA, Garrigue C, Carroll EL, Garland EC (2025) Whale song shows language-like statistical structure. Science 387, 649-653. 10.1126/science.adq7055<https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq7055> [signature_3535776839] The Evolution of Cetacean Societies: available for preorder here<https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo257312594.html>. ----------------------------------------------------- The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland: No SC013532
