How female dolphins know which males to avoid
A new study suggests female bottlenose dolphins may have a strategy for steering clear of males with a history of pushy mating tactics. Female bottlenose dolphins may be keeping mental tabs on the behavior of males in their social circles by noting their unique signature whistles—thus remembering which males to avoid, according to a new study.
The research, conducted in Shark Bay, Australia, found that female Indo-Pacific dolphins were more likely to steer clear of males with a history of consorting females, a mating strategy in which alliances of males work together to keep a female close for up to weeks at a time so they can mate with her. During consortships, males may bite, hit, or charge the female, chase them, and produce threat vocalizations that appear to intimidate females and control their movements.
“Male dolphins seem to have quite advanced social cognitive abilities to form these alliances and cooperate with each other to mate, but what about the females?” says Alice Bouchard, lead author of the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and animal behavior researcher at the University of Bristol in the UK. While male alliances and behavior have been extensively studied in Shark Bay, less is known about the females’ behavior toward males, she adds. This study yields new insight on that front.
“Females are using knowledge of individuals. That to me is super interesting,” says Laela Sayigh, a dolphin communication scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, who was not involved in the study. “To my knowledge, this is the first time that there really has been a study of how these communication signals are used in mate choice.”
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/bottlenose-dolphins-female-response-male-whistle
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