While male dolphins are known to use physical contact such as gentle petting to connect with strongly bonded allies, new findings show they rely on less time-demanding vocal exchanges to remain connected with weaker allies. 

The scientists, with colleagues from an international suite of universities, used nine years of acoustic and behavioural data from a dolphin population in Shark Bay, Western Australia, to assess how male dolphins reinforced and maintained their valuable alliances. 

Read the full University of Bristol press release

Paper: Gerber L et al. (2022). Social integration influences fitness in allied male dolphins. Current Biology.