There's an article at Yahoo about how a professor of animal behavior that was studying orca acoustics accidentally discovered that a killer whale had learned to catch seagulls. It did so by rugurgitating fish near the surface of the water, and then waiting underneath for an unsuspecting bird to arrive. This behavior was repeated, and eventually (a few months later) other whales started to do the same thing.

The capacity to come up with the gull-baiting strategy and then share the technique with others — known as cultural learning in the scientific world — was once believed to be one of those abilities that separated humans from other animals.

But biologists have since proven certain animals, including dolphins and chimps, do this.

"This is an example in which a new behavior spread through a population," Noonan said. "We had the opportunity to see a tradition form and spread in exactly the way that cultures do in humans."

He first shared his research earlier this month at the U.S. Animal Behavior Society Conference in Utah. Since then, he said, his phone hasn't stopped ringing.