#dolphin behavior

Dolphins have fascinated humans for centuries with their intelligence, playfulness, and mysterious behavior. One of the most common encounters people have with these incredible marine mammals is seeing them swimming alongside ships or boats. But why do dolphins follow vessels across the ocean? Let’s dive into the reasons behind this fascinating behavior. 1. Dolphins Ride the Bow Waves One of…

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Burst-pulsed sounds, which are more complex and varied than the whistles, are used 'to avoid physical aggression in situations of high excitement, such as when they are competing for the same piece of food.

Dolphins make longer burst-pulsed sounds when they are hunting and at times of high aggression, and make it possible for each individual to maintain its position in the pod's social hierarchy. Dolphins emit these strident sounds, for example, when in the presence of other individuals moving towards the same prey, forcing the least dominant mammal to move away to avoid confrontation.

Two or three adult males form a tight alliance and cooperate to herd a female for mating. Other male teams may try to spirit away the female—particularly if she is in estrus. To fight back, the first-level alliances form partnerships with other first-level alliances, thus creating a larger second-level alliance. Some of these second-level alliances have as many as 14 dolphins and can last 15 years or more. On some occasions, the second-level alliance can call in the troops from yet another group, "a third-order alliance," leading to huge battles with more than 20 dolphins biting and bashing each other with their heads and tails over the right to keep or steal a single female.

The team discovered that, none of the male groups were patrolling and defending a large community territory. Instead, the dolphins live in a society with a mosaic of many overlapping male and female ranges, without any apparent boundaries. "There isn't a community border that males or females are patrolling," says Connor. Instead, they live in an open society, with groups teaming up for a bit and splitting apart—all the while trying to stay on top of who did what to whom, while deciding whether they should stay friends or become foes.

"It's just unprecedented; there's nothing like this in other mammal societies," says Srđan Randić