Data from: Multi-network-based diffusion analysis reveals vertical cultural transmission of sponge tool use within dolphin matrilines

Behavioural differences among social groups can arise from differing
ecological conditions, genetic predispositions and/or social learning. In
the past, social learning has typically been inferred as responsible for
the spread of behaviour by the exclusion of ecological and genetic
factors. This ‘method of exclusion’ was used to infer that ‘sponging’, a
foraging behaviour involving tool use in the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops
aduncus) population in Shark Bay, Western Australia, was socially
transmitted. However, previous studies were limited in that they never
fully accounted for alternative factors, and that social learning, ecology
and genetics are not mutually exclusive in causing behavioural variation.
Here, we quantified the importance of social learning on the diffusion of
sponging, for the first time explicitly accounting for ecological and
genetic factors, using a multi-network version of ‘network-based diffusion
analysis’ (NBDA). Our results provide compelling support for previous
findings that sponging is vertically socially transmitted from mother to
(primarily female) offspring. This research illustrates the utility of
social network analysis in elucidating the explanatory mechanisms behind
the transmission of behaviour in wild animal populations.