Studying A Large Gang of Dolphins
As part of one two-year study that began in 1995, Connor studied a “supergang” of 14 adult male bottle-nosed dolphins in Shark Bay. Although he had studied other groups of dolphins that teamed up in twos or threes, this appeared to be an alliance of several smaller gangs united to form the supergang.
Connor reported that this alliance was the first documented evidence that male dolphins would form not only primary but also secondary social bonds—‘bonds extending beyond an original group to encompass new individuals‘—to fight rival males and stalk potential mates. Connor reported that during the course of his two-year study, as he and his associates observed the supergang, the dolphins never lost a fight.
Many biologists considered Connor's findings interesting because in most mammals, such as elephants, whales, and many species of apes, the females usually establish closer social alliances than males do. Typically, the females of a species are more cooperative, less violent, and more likely to use complex vocalizations than males. With some animals, such as killer whales, the social bonds among females are so strong that female calves never leave their mothers.
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