Young dolphins pick their friends wisely
JULY 24, 2020
by Robin A. Smith, Duke University
Young dolphins seek out peers and activities that will help get them where they need to go, finds a new study. Credit: Madison Miketa, PhD, Shark Bay Dolphin Project.
Strategic networking is key to career success, and not just for humans. A new study of wild bottlenose dolphins reveals that in early life, dolphins devote more time to building connections that could give them an edge later on.
Researchers at Georgetown University and Duke University report that dolphins under age 10 seek out peers and activities that could help them forge bonds and build skills they'll need in adulthood.
The results were published July 14 in the journal Behavioral Ecology.
The team analyzed nearly 30 years' worth of records for more than 1700 wild bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay in Western Australia. Since the 1980s, researchers have been taking boats out into this remote bay and noting things like the sex, age and behavior of any dolphins they encountered.
More:
https://phys.org/news/2020-07-young-dolphins-friends-wisely.html
