This is the story of a whale that tried something new and a monkey that fell in line.

It’s about how wild animals can create cultures and traditions just as we can, through the twin forces of innovation and conformity.

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In 1980, a humpback whale in the Gulf of Maine started doing something different. All its neighbours would catch small fish by swimming in circles below them, blowing curtains of bubbles, and then lunging straight up at the corralled shoal. Then one individual, out of the blue, started smacking the water surface with its tail before diving down and blowing its bubbles.

This behaviour is called lobtail feeding, and no one knows why it works. Maybe it disturbs the water above the bubble