Superalliance of bottlenose dolphins

Richard C. Connor (), Michael R. Heithaus and Lynne M. Barre
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Richard C. Connor: University of Massachusetts
Michael R. Heithaus: Simon Fraser University
Lynne M. Barre: Georgetown University

Nature, 1999, vol. 397, issue 6720, 571-572

Abstract: Abstract It is quite common to find several levels of nested male alliances in human political organization1, 2 but these are extremely rare in other species3. Yet we found that male bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) at Shark Bay, Western Australia, form two levels of alliance within a social network of more than 400 individuals. Fourteen of the males formed highly labile alliances, rather than the more typical stable ones, and joined forces in a large ‘superalliance’ that competed directly with smaller teams of stable alliances.

Date: 1999
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DOI: 10.1038/17501

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