These marine mammals are known for building unique cultures within their social groups.
Dolphins are known by many for their playful nature and remarkable intelligence. But experts say they have far more in common with humans than meets the eye — like the fact that they’ve been known to formDolphins typically live in groups called pods, which can consist of as few as two dolphins or as many as 1,000 dolphins in a “super-pod”. Most pods include somewhere between 40 and 60 dolphins, and this group dynamic gives dolphins a major advantage in hunting prey and hiding from predators.
In such fission-fusion societies — a type of social dynamic that exists in many other animals, such as chimpanzees — individuals often spend most of their day rotating between different groups. Throughout this rotation, though, they also maintain lifelong bonds with a few individuals in the system. As researchers from theAccording to Elliser, this fission-fusion dynamic is one of the many social habits that dolphins share with humans.
Elliser, who also serves as a research associate with the Wild Dolphin Project, saw these pressures firsthand while conducting aFor that study, scientists from the Wild Dolphin Project followed a group of about 50 dolphins from Little Bahama Bank who had lost nearly 40% of their population after two devastating hurricanes in 2004.
Males and females in many species have been known to take on different responsibilities in their families and social orders. In recent years, though, experts have split on the role that sex plays in dolphins’ social dynamics. “It’s pretty standard within other mammalian studies, where females kind of hang out and males are the ones that rove around. So this was just particularly interesting in that the males seem to be more connecting,” she says, adding that some male dolphins in this group also formed male alliances, or close lifelong best friends, Elliser says.among dolphins.
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