Is there teaching in nonhuman animals?

TM Caro & MD Hauser

The quarterly review of biology 67 (2), 151-174

We derive a simple operational definition of teaching that distinguishes it from other forms of social learning where there is no active participation of instructors, and then discuss the constituent parts of the definition in detail. From a functional perspective, it is argued that the instructor's sensivity to the pupul's changing skills or knowledge, and the instructor's ability to attribute mental states to others, are not necessary conditions of teaching in nonhuman animals, as assumed by previous work, because guided instruction without these prerequisites could still be favored by natural selection. A number of cases of social interacion in several orders of mammals and birds that have been interpreted as evidence of teaching are then reviewed.