Animal cultures and anthropogenic change

本项目旨在调查人为变化对澳大利亚鸣禽衰落的复杂鸣叫文化的影响。文化是社会性动物生物学的基础，对生物多样性保护有着深远的影响;然而，动物文化变化的驱动因素尚不清楚。该项目将分析琴鸟的歌声文化如何应对人为环境变化，包括澳大利亚2019-20年的特大火灾。此外，它还将评估环境和文化变化之间的联系机制，并研究声乐文化作为生态健康生物指标的效用。该项目将促进动物文化的基础研究，并加强野生文化多样性的保护。

This project aims to investigate the impacts of anthropogenic change on the elaborate song cultures of declining Australian songbirds. Culture is fundamental to the biology of social animals, and has profound implications for biodiversity conservation; however, the drivers of animal cultural change are unclear. This project will analyse how lyrebird song cultures respond to anthropogenic environmental change, including Australia’s 2019-20 megafires. Furthermore, it will assess the mechanisms linking environmental and cultural change, and examine the utility of vocal cultures as bioindicators of ecological health. This project will advance fundamental research in animal culture and enhance the conservation of cultural diversity in the wild.