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Humans prefer to associate with other humans who share their subculture. That’s why there are knitting clubs and fantasy football leagues.
And it turns out that dolphins also form cliques: Researchers found that dolphins known as spongers spend most of their time with other spongers. The study is in the journal Nature Communications. [Janet Mann et al., Social networks reveal cultural behaviour in tool-using dolphins]
Spongers are a small subset of dolphins that use marine basket sponges to hunt for prey. The dolphins wear the sponges over their beaks to protect themselves from rocks and broken coral when they are searching for nutritious food on the sea floor.
Sponging is passed down from parents to their young. And because the practice is socially learned, researchers agree that spongers are culturally distinct from other dolphins.
These findings are consistent with the notion that dolphins form fission-fusion societies—where all dolphins in a community belong to the same larger group, but have specific friends whom they spend most of their time with. Of course, scientists have yet to find out which dolphin clique is the coolest.
—Amy Kraft
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
[Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.]
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5 Comments
Add CommentWhy, I am surprised that scientists aren't aware of the obvious (at least to me) conclusion: Every Dolphin clique is the coolest, to the "bros & sistas" of their own respective posse...and in their own way they (the dolphins) are 100% correct.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this'Spongeworthiness' - I don't think you're using that word correctly. :P
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOn a less serious note:
I for one welcome our new dolphin overlords. Please do not unleash your nuclear weapons on the surface world, oh mighty dolphin fission-fusion societies!
"Humans prefer to associate with other humans who share their subculture" - too bad you cannot cite even one study pointing in this direction; one could easily argue that diversity is a far better environment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHere's a word for the authors: anthropomorphism! That means humans see "human" things in things that are not human! Dolphins have no "cliques" - there mammals! Only humans have cliques. Dolphins cannot possibly have a concept of cliques; that's a human perspective - we will never know what 'criteria' they use to gather - probably a very good things for dolphins!
Non-scientists now find it intelligently pretentious to say "too bad you cannot cite even one study," when immediately following the source of this complaint are two illustrations of preference. Note that the first sentence's verb is "prefer." It's not a law, not a theorem, nothing more than a preference.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne of the things that scientists will not do is predetermine what mammals can possibly conceive. Basically, yours is an error-filled comment, prom.
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The correct use of the term is debatable - there is a definite allusion to one of the most memorable episodes of a well-known and highly revered sitcom series.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't think the allusion is very good because the only link between the dolphins and the episode is that sponges were central to the plot, but the sponges were used in very different ways.