Social learning can be a major factor for mammals to learn behaviors critical to their survival and reproduction in their natural habitat. Development of adaptive patterns of food selection, mate choice, predator avoidance, and communication are all facilitated by interactions with conspecifics. Social Learning allows mammals to flourish in portions of the environment otherwise closed to them by, for example, learning socially to select valuable foods that would otherwise be ignored or to overcome the defense of potential prey that would otherwise prove impossible to ingest. Social Learning can promote group cohesion, individual reproductive success, and even lead to the emergence of behavioral traditions across generations.