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Cited by 20Marine animal studies overviewPrimate Behavior and EcologyLanguage and cultural evolution

Contextual imitation of intransitive body actions in a Beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas): A “do as other does” study

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Abramson, José Z., Hernández-Lloreda, Mª Victoria, Esteban, José-Antonio, Colmenares, Fernando, Aboitiz, Francisco, Call, Josep·2017·PLoS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0178906PMC PMC5479519
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Abstract

Cetaceans are remarkable for exhibiting group-specific behavioral traditions or cultures in several behavioral domains (e.g., calls, behavioral tactics), and the question of whether they can be acquired socially, for example through imitative processes, remains open. Here we used a "Do as other does" paradigm to experimentally study the ability of a beluga to imitate familiar intransitive (body-oriented) actions demonstrated by a conspecific. The participant was first trained to copy three familiar behaviors on command (training phase) and then was tested for her ability to generalize the learned "Do as the other does" command to a different set of three familiar behaviors (testing phase). We found that the beluga (1) was capable of learning the copy command signal "Do what-the-other-does"; (2) exhibited high matching accuracy for trained behaviors (mean = 84% of correct performance) after making the first successful copy on command; (3) copied successfully the new set of three familiar generalization behaviors that were untrained to the copy command (range of first copy = 12 to 35 trials); and (4) deployed a high level of matching accuracy (mean = 83%) after making the first copy of an untrained behavior on command. This is the first evidence of contextual imitation of intransitive (body-oriented) movements in the beluga and adds to the reported findings on production imitation of sounds in this species and production imitation of sounds and motor actions in several cetaceans, especially dolphins and killer whales. Collectively these findings highlight the notion that cetaceans have a natural propensity at skillfully and proficiently matching the sounds and body movements demonstrated by conspecifics, a fitness-enhancing propensity in the context of cooperative hunting and anti-predatory defense tactics, and of alliance formation strategies that have been documented in these species' natural habitats. Future work should determine if the beluga can also imitate novel motor actions.

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  • Belugas have the capacity for contextual imitation of intransitive and novel body actions.

    “They have also demonstrated the ability for behavioral imitation during play [44] and the capacity for contextual imitation of intransitive and novel body actions [45,46].”

    From Evidence for mirror self-recognition in beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) (2026) · cites this paper as [45]

    The Discussion reports that one captive beluga copied familiar intransitive body movements on command, supporting the contextual-imitation portion. It explicitly says that whether belugas can imitate novel intransitive actions remains to be established, so this source does not support the novel-actions portion. (LLM, conf=0.94)

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  • Belugas show the capacity for both vocal and behavioral imitation.

    “This species shows the capacity for both vocal and behavioral imitation.”

    From Evidence for mirror self-recognition in beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) (2026) · cites this paper as [45]

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1 of the 55 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [46]Topál J, Byrne RW, Miklósi A, Csányi V. Reproducing human actions and action sequences:“Do as I Do!” in a dog. Anim Cog. 2006; 9: 355– 367. 17024511
  2. [50]Xitco MJ. Mimicry of modeled behaviours by bottlenose dolphins. Unpublished Master of Science thesis, University of Hawaii, Honolulu; 1988.

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Authors
Abramson, J. Z., Hernández-Lloreda, M. V., Esteban, J.-A., Colmenares, F., Aboitiz, F., & Call, J.
Affiliations
  • Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ES)
  • Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (CL)
  • University of St Andrews (GB)
ORCID
Venue
PLoS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2017-06-21
Volume
12
Issue
6
Pages
e0178906
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0178906
PMC
PMC5479519
OpenAlex
W2660320799
Cited by
20
References
55
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2
FWCI
1.03
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • St Andrews Research Repository (St Andrews Research Repository) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (3140580)
  • Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (PSI2011-29016-C02-01, PSI2014-51890-C2-1-P)
  • Fundación Banco Santander (UCM-BSCH GR3/14-940813)
  • Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (CL) (1160258)
  • European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme ((FP7/2007-2013) / ERC grant SOMICS agreement n° 609819)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Marine animal studies overview
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
Keywords
beluga whale, imitation, social learning, behavioral generalization, animal cognition, cetacean social behavior
MeSH terms
Animals, Auditory Perception, Behavior, Animal, Female, Imitative Behavior, Learning, Male, Motor Activity, Psychomotor Performance, Beluga Whale

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