New Scientist
Image: sheilapic76
In a crisis you realise who your friends are – even if they don’t belong to your species.
The bottlenose and spotted dolphins of the Bahamas are unusual in that they often intermingle.
Now, observations show these unusual coalitions survived two deadly hurricanes. Afterwards the dolphin interactions were less aggressive, perhaps to allow them to adjust to post-disaster life.
Bottlenose and spotted dolphins in the Bahamas play and forage together, sometimes even babysitting each other’s young. But bottlenose males also routinely use their size advantage to forcibly hone their mating skills on their smaller cousin species.
In 2004, two hurricanes swept through the Bahamas. Both dolphin species lost between 30 and 40 individuals – about 30 per cent of their respective populations.
“They interacted with those dolphins every day for years,” says Cindy Elliser at Pacific Mammal Research in Anacortes, Washington. “Losing them really threw a wrench in everything.” Read more on newscientist.com…
