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That’s an understandable conclusion to jump to but IIRC the article said they thought the males needed to form peer groups because the male dolphin mating strat
by adamsea 6y ago
That’s an understandable conclusion to jump to but IIRC the article said they thought the males needed to form peer groups because the male dolphin mating strategy is, to quote from the article, for a group of males to get a female dolphin alone and coerce her into sex.
Which feels weird to write but apparently is how dolphins do it.
The article also said females needed peers for foraging, to have additional support when raising vulnerable young.
- pvaldes 6y agoRape sells clicks, but is not their only mating strategy. There is a high plasticity in their individual behaviour. Grandmas and mothers will try to chase off young adolescents doing undesired advances over young females so most attempts will be stopped probably. On the other hand, known older males will be recognized and accepted by females (and chased off by males). The simple explanation is that what we see is the expected normal expression of testosterone in a young mammal. Cetaceans have relatively long adolescences to polish their survival strategies and are curious and (often) very social. That alone would explain their desire to join a group with other playmates. The probability of a young bottlenose to mate successfully is (probably) low. They need to full develop physically, but also psychologically, before; and is a slow process.