A group of 52 Atlantic spotted dolphins were driven to migrate by unknown forces and left their home on the Little Bahama Bank. The island of Bimini is home to a community of 120 Atlantic spotted dolphins.
Things can get tense when a group of mammals meet. Chimpanzees are known for their violent run-ins. Male mammals are interested in defending their territory and getting to females.
The mixing and mingling of dolphins in the Atlantic seem to have gone swimmingly.
The growing dolphin community was the subject of two papers. Independent confirmation that dolphins from different groups formed strong bonds in a short period of time was offered by their analyses. The rare event provides new clues about how the brainy mammals organize their societies.
After 30 years of watching dolphins on the Little Bahama Bank, Herzing and her colleagues started tracking the dolphins when they left.
She said they were interested in how they were integrating. It is a type of natural experiment.
The Dolphin Communication Project observed dolphins for two decades. A behavioral ecologist with the group said that they saw so many adults that they didn't know. The other dolphin researchers were not referring to the dolphins.
The aquatic mammals form close bonds within their home group. They formed new friends with strangers at Bimini.
An analysis of how individual animals touched each other was done by Dr. Danaher-Garcia. They rub their pectoral fins against each other a lot. She thought it looked like they were playing patty-cake. A dolphin rubs its forehead on a friend. She said that if they're allowing you to do it, they need to trust you. The team reported in the journal that friendly gestures were common between males from different groups.
The team didn't observe any aggression between the newcomers and the Bimini crew.
The doctor said that it was very unusual. Her team saw the animals socializing, playing and getting frisky, behavior similar to that of bonobo.
She said it was possible that they use sex to ease the tension. The bacchanal can look like a ball of animals. She said that you can't tell who's touching who and what's happening.
Like bonobos and Chimpanzees, dolphins live in societies where they have strong bonds with people but can break them. Diana Reiss is a marine mammal scientist and cognitive psychologist at Hunter College who was not part of either study. It is exciting to see such social flexibility within groups that have not previously lived together.
The geography of Bimini makes for more amiable interactions because the dolphins don't need to fight over space
That doesn't mean it was easy to use. Some aggressive behaviors, such as dolphins hitting or ramming heads, are typical of males fighting over opportunities to have sex. The results of the cetaceans associations from 2015 to 2020 were reported last week. The fighting that Dr. Herzing's team observed is not uncommon and can happen within a single group of dolphins.
The new mixed group has yet to be analyzed by Dr. Herzing's group. During the summer time, that team stayed on a boat further offshore to watch the dolphins. Dr. Herzing said that Dr. Danaher-Garcia had a limited sample size that was more focused on males.
She said that they probably didn't see aggression because there wasn't much to fight over.
There could be a difference in how the two studies classify aggression.
There is more research that needs to be done to find out if the mixed dolphin groups are becoming more enmeshed. Dr. Herzing and his team at the Wild Dolphin Project collect dolphin feces and analyze the genetic material they contain to discover the dolphins' parentage.
There is value in researching these interactions, according to a behavioral ecologist. Understanding social ties could show how animal groups respond to environmental change. Researchers still don't know a lot about the ecological factors that drive grouping, the role of individuals in shaping a social structure and the costs and benefits of banding together.
Different dolphin populations could be pushed together. In Bangladesh, rising seas brought river dolphins into contact with another dolphin species in the ocean.
She said that they didn't know how species would fare.
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