Gerber says that the males with more friends are likely more often invited to cruise for females, giving them more opportunities for cooperative canoodling.Ok, so dolphins do better on group dates.But how do they establish and maintain these critical friendships?Through physical contact much like hugging or holding hands in humans.Or like grooming in other primates, like chimps or monkeys……where individuals will devote a lot of time and energy into grooming their closest friends to strengthen those relationships.Emma Chereskin of the University of Bristol.She says the problem with all this physical interaction is…there’s only so many hours in a day.When group sizes become larger, this places a constraint on how much time is available for an individual to devote to grooming key social partners.Enter the “social bonding hypothesis.”In this hypothesis, vocal exchanges can serve as a replacement for grooming to maintain social bonds.Like us chatting regularly with our circle of friends.For dolphins, those chats take the form of exchanging “signature whistles.”A signature whistle is a vocalization that is completely unique to each dolphin that functions much like a human name.That was Kooks…a member of the Alley Cat alliance.And that’s his pal Pimento.So when they use their signature whistle they’re advertising their identity to those around them as a way to maintain group cohesion.So Chereskin set out to determine which dolphins were getting physical…and which were more or less phoning it in.
