An Australian study shows that dolphins, just like us, learn the 'names' of their mates with whom they form groups, or gangs
According to an Australian study, dolphins would learn the names of their friends and form groups to face rivals and defend females. It is the first animal, in addition to man, able to identify the members of its group through unique calls, which they remember even after many years.
As members of a street gang, male dolphins call their mates when it comes time for revenge - or, to capture and defend females in heat. A new Australian study reveals that dolphins do this by learning the names (or rather identifying calls) of their closest mates and remembering those of those who have frequently helped them in the past. Sometimes it is more than a dozen names. This incredible discovery demonstrates that dolphins have their own sense of belonging to a group (so far only found in humans) and provides further evidence for the idea that dolphins have also developed larger brains to weave complex social relationships.
Generally, male dolphins collaborate in groups of two or three - in what the researchers dubbed an alliance "of first order". These small groups work together to find and attract a fertile female. The males then also collaborate in alliances called "second order”Which can include up to 14 dolphins: these larger groups act against rival groups who try to kidnap females for mating. Dolphins often change mates in the first level alliances, while they keep the members of the second level alliances unchanged (even for decades): these larger groups are considered the central nuclei of the male society.
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"Males stay together for life - at least forty years," observes Stephanie King, a behavioral biologist at the University of Bristol. But how do they keep track of the various components in these complex groups? Scientists argue that calls are the key: each dolphin has a unique call that is given to him by his mother and which he keeps for life. Dolphins, therefore, recognize and identify with each other precisely through these calls - a bit like we humans do, who recognize each other by calling each other by name.
To better investigate how male dolphins use their calls, years of study were needed in the waters of Shark Bay, Australia. There a community of dolphins has been observed and monitored since 2016 with underwater microphones capable of determining which dolphin produced a particular call. Between 2018 and 2019, however, the researchers placed an underwater repeater that transmitted the calls of males recorded in previous years, along with a drone that recorded dolphin responses to these calls. The researchers expected stronger responses to the calls of the companions of the smaller alliances, and instead the most intense responses came to the calls of those dolphins who were part of second-level alliances - larger teams but, evidently, characterized by a more deep.
Source: Science Magazine
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