Ecology
Some bottlenose dolphins from Laguna in southern Brazil have definitely learned to work in teams with local fishermen, allowing both animals and humans to benefit.
A study of dolphins, published in the latest issue of the Royal Society Biology Letters, found that those dolphins that help catch fish the most are particularly adventurous and social in its environment. Perhaps this fact explains why some dolphins are more willing to work with humans, while others are not.
“Working with humans, enterprising dolphins from Laguna drive shoals of mullet towards fishing boats, and then signal to people by nodding or hitting their tails against the water surface when and where to throw nets,” wrote study author Fabio Daura-Jorge from the Federal University of Santa Catarina.
The help of dolphins is not selfless. Fish that manage to escape the nets swim right into the jaws of dolphins, who are waiting for that sweet moment.
Daura-George and his team conducted research for 2 years, collecting photo images and other information about the behavior of dolphins. Those dolphins who volunteered to help fishermen were called “collaborators”, while others fell into the “non-cooperative” category.
The scientists then used computer models to identify social relationships in dolphin families. The “collaborating” dolphins turned out to spend more time together even when they weren't helping humans. They apparently had their own social network within the larger bottlenose dolphin population of these places.
Scientists suspect that “ecology, genetics and social skills” may help and support the unique collaborative abilities of a group of more social dolphins with humans. It is also interesting that this phenomenon reflects how Brazilian fishermen learn their craft.
“The fact that dolphins can help fishermen catch fish has been known for a long time, and local residents inherit these skills to each other from the older generation to the younger generation. Perhaps the same thing is happening in the dolphin family, as they are able to teach their younger generation various other skills. For example, dolphins in Western Australia use sponges to avoid getting hurt when looking for food, and teach their offspring to do so, “the scientists wrote.
If we take the relative size of a dolphin's brain to measure its mental abilities, we can say that they are the smartest creatures after modern humans. Interaction can also be key in learning among animals and not just dolphins.
The idea that the need for complex social connections could spur the evolutionary development of intelligence was put forward back in the 1970s. Most of the works that supported this hypothesis were based on the study of primates. Research has shown that social characteristics such as group size and stability or group cheating are related to brain size, the researchers said.
Intelligence and interaction go hand in hand, with the former contributing to the latter. Interaction alone does not require you to be very smart, as some organisms that are not cognitively capable, such as bacteria, are actually very social.
Daura-George and his team of researchers are now studying dolphin genetics to support the above hypothesis. Perhaps certain dolphins inherit the ability to cooperate with humans genetically, and mothers only consolidate the knowledge of their offspring.