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Animal behaviour

Birdsong normalized by culture

Both birdsong and human language are learned, requiring complex social input. New findings show, however, that bird populations 'seeded' with aberrant song input transform it to normal song in a few generations.

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Fitch, W. Birdsong normalized by culture. Nature 459, 519–520 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/459519a

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