The Dolphin Alliance Culture Project is an exciting marriage of the two most important streams of dolphin research in Shark Bay, the multilevel male alliances and dolphin culture
Dolphin alliances
Dolphins have the biggest brains after humans, taking body size into account. Many think that big brains are important for negotiating complex social relationships, and the most complex kind of relationships are alliances, where individuals join forces to cooperate against others. Over 40 years of research have revealed that male dolphins in Shark Bay have the most complex non-human alliances on the planet. The Shark Bay dolphins participate in a remarkable THREE levels of alliances with cooperation and conflict at every level. A landmark 2022 publication in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences established the Shark Bay dolphin society as having the largest non-human alliance network in the world and the only non-human society where stable social groups of unrelated individuals join forces to cooperate against other groups.
PLUS
Dolphin culture
While we were learning about complex male alliances, we were also learning that Shark Bay dolphins differ in where and how they hunt for prey, in places and using techniques that they learn from their mothers and others, some involving tool use! These dolphin foraging cultures may also be a manifestation of dolphin intelligence.
EQUALS
The Dolphin Alliance Culture Project
Our recent discoveries of alliance differences in where and how they hunt for prey opens the door to study cultural behavior in the most complex non-human alliances known! We will examine dolphin alliances for culture in how they feed, communicate and socialize. We hope you will join us in this ground-breaking effort! Find out how you can help.
All photography provided by Dolphin Alliance Project
About
Find out about our organization, mission, methods, and results from over thirty years of research.
