Dolphins are extremely playful, but little is known about how they -- and other marine mammals -- communicate during playtime. New research shows that bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncates) use the 'open mouth' facial expression -- analogous to a smile -- to communicate during social play.
Dolphins are extremely playful, but little is known about how they -- and other marine mammals -- communicate during playtime. New research shows that bottlenose dolphins use the 'open mouth' facial expression -- analogous to a smile -- to communicate during social play. The dolphins almost always use the facial expression when they are in their playmate's field of view, and when playmates perceived a 'smile,' they responded in kind 33% of the time.
Dolphin play can include acrobatics, surfing, playing with objects, chasing, and playfighting, and it's important that these activities aren't misinterpreted as aggression. Other mammals use facial expressions to communicate playfulness, but whether marine mammals also use facial expressions to signal playtime hasn't been previously explored.
They showed that dolphins frequently use the open mouth expression when playing with other dolphins, but they don't seem to use it when playing with humans or when they're playing by themselves. While only one open mouth event was recorded during solitary play, the researchers recorded a total of 1,288 open mouth events during social play sessions, and 92% of these events occurred during dolphin-dolphin play sessions.
"Future research should dive into eye-tracking to explore how dolphins see their world and utilize acoustic signals in their multimodal communication during play," says corresponding author and zoologist Livio Favaro."Dolphins have developed one of the most intricate vocal systems in the animal world, but sound can also expose them to predators or eavesdroppers.
Sea Life Marine Biology Mammals Animals Wild Animals Evolutionary Biology Nature
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