Male dolphins form alliances to get and keep their new female partner

I recently wrote about male dolphins who remember other males who did not come to their aid when they needed it. They bore a grudge against these individuals to the point where they wouldn’t help them, indicating sophisticated behaviour. The same team of researchers also found that dolphins form alliances to bully females into mating.

Bottlenose dolphin

Bottlenose dolphin. Picture in public domain.

Tears as every death brings the finless porpoise closer to extinction
The finless porpoise known for its mysterious smile is the cousin of a now extinct dolphin species called the Baiji ...
Read More
Dolphins have to shout to be heard over human-made ocean noise.
Dolphins have to shout at each other when trying to communicate as underwater noise has increased substantially because of increased ...
Read More
Beached dolphins
'Cetacean stranding' is the technical term for beached whales and dolphins. They normally die because of dehydration or collapsing under ...
Read More
Dolphins see greater gains with mates
At the moment, we know of only one animal, other than the human-animal, which has the ability to form cross-group ...
Read More
Music helps dolphins to live in harmony according to a recent study. Researchers from the University of Padua in northern ...
Read More
Citizens of New York and marine biologists, and I expect conservationists, are excited to see bottlenose dolphins showing up in ...
Read More
Dolphins
Scientists have found a suite of bioactive compounds in specific corals and sponges which were secreted and which helped to ...
Read More

Dolphins appear to be carefree but when it comes to courtship they are very purposeful, committed and fiercely competitive. They found that the dolphins of Shark Bay, Western Australia, which they studied for 40 years, exhibit complex social systems including alliances between male dolphins to cooperate in catching a female as a partner.

In fact, each male dolphin forms a lifelong friendship or pact with one or two males. They cooperate to increase their chances of procreation. When they meet a female who is ready to mate, this coalition of males surround her and usher her away from competing males. The researchers believe that they are intimidating and impressing females.

They also perform acrobatic displays around the female, in unison, once again to impress. If the female tries to break away it is said that they are quite likely to bite and charge at her. It’s important to keep the female because they give birth to one calf about every five years. A coalition of males may have to fend off competing males for a month before one of them has a chance to mate.

These coalitions, as I have called them, are called “first-order alliances”. They will also try and steal females from other alliances. They even call for backup help sometimes. These alliances of two or three males exist within an umbrella group of up to 14 males banding together to form a tribe, which is called a “second-order alliance”.

The purpose once again of the second-order alliance is to get females. And sometimes second-order alliances band together to create a third tier with the same purpose in mind. They say that dolphins are the only creatures other than humans where one group has solicited a second to confront a third. Not even chimpanzees do this, although they do form gangs to attack rival camps.

And in order to figure out which males they can rely on in these alliances, the males keep a score of who they can depend upon. And this takes me full circle to the first sentence about how males can bear a grudge against other males who do not come to their assistance when required.

You may also like...