European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 10, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sexism gang warfare brutality research shows dolphins Aren t always As charming As you might think by Natalie Angier the new York times As much As puppies or pandas or even children dolphins Are universally beloved. They seem to cavort and frolic at the least provocation their Mouths Are fixed in what looks like a state of perpetual merriment and their behaviour and enormous brains suggest an intelligence approaching that of humans a or even some might argue surpassing it. Dolphins Are turning out to be exceedingly Clever but not in the Loving utopian socialist manner that sentimental Flipper philes might have hoped. Researchers who have spent thousands of hours observing the behaviour of bottle nose dolphins off the coast of Australia have discovered that the males form social alliances with one another that Are far More sophisticated and devious than any seen in animals apart from human beings. They have found that one team of male dolphins will recruit the help of another team of males to gang up against a third group a sort of Multi tiered Battle plan that scientists said requires considerable mental calculus to work out. But the purpose of these Complex alliances is not exactly Sportive. Males collude with their Peers As a Way of stealing Fertile females from competing Dolphin bands. And after they have succeeded in Spir iting a female away the males remain in their tight knit group to assure the female stays in line performing a series of feats that Are at once spectacular and threatening. Two or three males will surround the female leaping and belly flopping swivelling and somersault ing All in perfect synchrony with one another. Should the female be so unimpressed by the choreography As to attempt to flee the males will Chase after her bite her slap her with their fins or slam into her with their bodies. The scientists Call this Effort to control females Quot herding Quot but they acknowledge that the word does not convey the aggressiveness of the act. Quot sometimes the female is obviously trying to escape and the noises Start to sound like they re hurting each Ether Quot said or. Rachel a. Smolker of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Quot the hitting sounds really hard and the female May end up with tooth Rake  Smolker or. Andrew f. Richards and or. Richard c. Connor who is now at the Woods Hole oceanographic institution in Massachusetts reported their findings about Dolphin alliances and herding in a recent Issue of the proceedings of the National Academy of sciences. The researchers said that while Marine biologists have Long been impressed with the intelligence and social complexity of bottle nose dolphins a the Type of porpoise often used in Marine mammal shows because they Are so responsive to trainers a they were nonetheless surprised by the intricacy of the males machinations. Many male primates including chimpanzees and Baboons Are known to form into gangs to attack rival Camps but scientists have never before seen one group of animals soliciting a second to go after a third. More impressive the two part alliances among dolphins seem to be extremely flexible shifting from Day to Day depending on the dolphins needs whether or not one group owes a favor to another and the dolphins perceptions of what they can get away with. The creatures seem to be highly opportunistic which Means that each animal must always be computing who is Friend and who is foe. Quot if you think of an interaction Between groups that is predictably hostile it does t seem to require much Gray matter to know where you stand Quot said Connor. Quot but when you have situations always changing Between alliances you get the soap opera effect. A what did he co with her today should we go after them tomorrow the biologists also have evidence that females form sophisticated alliances in an Effort to thwart male encroachment and that bands of females will Chase after an Alliance of males that has stolen one of their friends from the fold. What is More females seem to exert Choice Over the males that seek to Herd them sometimes swimming alongside them in apparent Contentment but at other times working furiously to escape and often succeeding. Particularly under the difficult Field conditions of studying animals that spend much of their time underwater. Connor and others suggest that the demands of intricate and Ever changing social allegiances and counter allegiances could have been the Force driving the evolution of intelligence among dolphins. Quot the smarter some animals get and the greater their ability to form and use alliances the More important it is for other animals to get As smart Quot said or. Richard w. Wrangham a professor of anthropology at Harvard University who has studied social behaviour among primates. Quot this could be the sort of selective pressure one is looking for to explain the evolution of the Dolphin s  lest it seem that dolphins Are Little More than thugs with fins and a blowhole biologists emphasize that they but female Dolphin behaviour is usually More Subtle than the male theatrics and hence less easily deciphered while dolphins Arentt exactly thug with Flea and blowhole some of their Behaviours Are decidedly human like. They can be Nasty domineering and fickle researchers say. 14 a the stars and stripes tuesday Are in general remarkably Good natured animals and usually live up to their reputation As Sportive easygoing and communal. Quot when you put them into a captive situation they re like Little Puppy dogs Quot said or. Kenneth Norris professor emeritus of the University of California at Santa Cruz and one of the world s authorities on Dolphin behaviour. Quot sure sometimes  bite but it s not like trying to train a  most of the 30 species of dolphins and Small whales Are extremely social forming into schools of anywhere from several to hundreds of mammals which periodically break off into smaller clans and then come Back together again in what is called a fission fusion society. Among other things their sociality seems to help them evade Sharks and to forage for fish More effectively. Species like the bottle nose and the spinner dolphins make most of their decisions by consensus spending hours dawdling in a protected Bay nuzzling each other and generating an eerie nautical symphony of squeaks whistles barks twang and Clicks. The noises Crescendo Ever louder until they reach a pitch that apparently indicates the vote is unanimous and it is time to take action a say to go out and fish. Quot when they re coordinating their decisions it s like an orchestra tuning up and it gets More impassioned and More rhythmic Quot said Norris. Quot democracy takes time and they spend hours every Day making  As extraordinary As their music is scientists have not found evidence that dolphins possess what can rightfully be called a Complex language where a Dolphin can clearly say to another Quot lets go  Quot we be yet to come up with much context that is specific to any of the sounds Quot said Norris. But the vocalizations Are not completely random. Researchers have determined that each bottle nose Dolphin appears to have its own Call sign a a signature whistle unique to that creature. Whistles Are generated internally and sound More like a radio signal than a human whistle. The Mother seems to teach her calf what its whistle will be by repeating the sound Over and Over. The calf retains the whistle squealing it out at times As though declaring its presence. More impressive one Dolphin May occasionally imitate the whistle of a companion in essence calling the Friend s name. But Dolphin researchers warn against glorifying dolphins beyond the realms of Mamma Dom. Quot everybody who a done research in the Field is tired of Dolphin lovers who believe these creatures Are floating hobbits Quot said Karen Pryor a Dolphin Trainer and scientist to lives in North Bend Wash. Quot a Dolphin is a healthy serial mammal and it behaves like one including doing things that we Don t find particularly  Pryor and Norris have edited a Book that sums up the St the of the Dolphin Field called Dolphin societies discoveries and puzzles recently published by the University of California press. Dolphins become particularly churlish when they want to mate or to avoid being mated. Female bottle nose dolphins Bear a single calf Only once every Fiir or five years so a Fertile female is a prize commodity to the males. Because there is almost no size difference Between the sexes a single female cannot be forced to mate by a Lone male. That May be part of the reason Why males team into gangs. In the latest research on bottle nose dolphins Connor and his colleagues spent the last 10 years studying a network of about 300 dolphins in shark Bay in Western much Dolphin behaviour centers on the males attempts to mate with a female. But once birth occurs the females Are left As single parents raising their calves for four or five years. Australia and devoted 25 months to observing male behaviour in detail. They followed dolphins around in a 12-foot Dinghy identifying individuals through scar patterns on their fins and recording their whistles and Clicks whenever possible. The researchers have discovered that Early in adolescence a male bottle nose will form an unshakeable Alliance with one or two other males. These dolphins stick together for years and perhaps a lifetime a swimming fishing and playing together and flaunting their fast Friendship by always travelling abreast and surfacing in exact synchrony. Sometimes that simple pair or Triplet is Able to woo a Fertile female on its own although what happens once the males have herded in a female and whether she goes for one or All of them is not yet known the researchers have yet to witness a Dolphin copulation. At other times potential mates Are scarce and male alliances grow obstreperous. That is when pairs or triplets May seek to steal females from other groups. To do that they seek out another Alliance of lonely bachelors and somehow persuade that pair or Triplet of dolphins to join in the  researchers Are not yet sure what signals the males use to recruit outside Aid but they believe the supplicants use their pectoral fins to stroke the males from which they need assistance or perhaps give them a few gentle pecks. In simpler Maneu vers among primates scientists have observed that when one male needs the help of another he takes a rather Blunt approach. Quot in Baboons a male who wants help against an enemy will look first at his Friend and then let his eyes Trail Over to the enemy flicking his eyes Back and Forth Quot said Wrangham. However the pact is sealed the two Dolphin gangs will then descend on a third group that is herding along a female. The two groups will then Chase and assault the defending team and because there Are More of them they usually win taking away the female. Significantly the victorious joint Alliance then splits up with Only one pair or Triplet getting the female and the other team apparently having helped them strictly As a favor. That buddy buddy spirit however May be fleeting. Two groups of dolphins that cooperated one week May be adversaries the next As a pair of males switches sides to help a second group of dolphins pilfer the same female they had helped the now defending males capture in the first place. How Many of these encounters involve relatives ganging up against non relatives is not yet known. The researchers Hope soon to begin doing Dan fingerprinting on the dolphins to determine family Trees. In the strongest evidence of two tiered coalitions the researchers at one Point watched As a pair of males approached another Alliance that was herding a female but did nothing at the time. Quot they watched for a while and then they swam away Quot said or. Connor. Quot but later they came Back with another Alliance to attack them and capture the  the instability end intricacy of the mating games May explain Why males Are so aggressive and demanding toward the females they do manage to capture. Male pairs or triplets guard the female ferociously jerking their Heads at her charging her biting her and leaping and swimming about her in perfect unison As though turning their bodies into fences. They May swim up under her their penises extruded and erect but without attempts at penetration. Sometimes a male will make a distinctive popping noise at the female a vocalization that sounds like a fist rapping on hollow Wood. The noise seems to indicate Quot get Over Here Quot because if the female ignores the pop the male will threaten or attack her. At some Point the female mates with one or More of the males and once she gives birth the Alliance loses interest in her. Female dolphins raise their calves As single mothers for four to five years. Having mapped out the basics of male alliances the researchers Are now trying to better understand female social behaviour. Quot our research has been male entered because it s easy Quot said Smolker. Quot males make big movements and it s Clear what s going on. But females must be playing a critical  the scientists said females seem to have widely varying habits. Most males form into lifelong pairs or triplets but females May or May not ally themselves with friends. Quot some females Are solitary and forage alone some have stable relationships with a few other females and some Are All Over the place like social butterflies Quot said Connor. The scientists have seen several cases when females will Chase off inter loping males or jointly attack an Alliance that tries to take away one of their own. Sometimes the females Are successful. Biologists suggest that the pressure to alternately cooperate and compete with their Fellows May have spurred on the evolution of the Dolphin brain. Dolphins have one of the highest ratio of brain size to body mass in the animal kingdom which is often a measure of intelligence. A similar hypothesis has been proposed for the flowering of intelligence in humans another big brained species. Like dolphins humans evolved in highly social conditions where Kin friends and foes Are All mingled together and the resources you could afford to share today May become dangerously scarce tomorrow igniting conflict. In such a setting few relationships Are Black or White and the capacity to distinguish Subtle shades of Gray demands intelligence. But scientists concede that a big brain might have evolved first and the sophisticated social behaviour developed later. They Point out that sheep which Are hardly known for their Savoir Faire also possess unusually Large brains. 10, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 15