Alliance membership and kinship in wild male bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) of southeastern Australia

Bottlenose dolphins are one of only a few mammalian taxa where the males are known to cooperate within their social group in order to maintain mating access to single females against other males. Male bonds in bottlenose dolphins have been hypothesized as evolving through kinship and associated incl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 2001-09, Vol.268 (1479), p.1941-1947
Main Authors: Möller, L M, Beheregaray, L B, Harcourt, R G, Krützen, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alliances
Animal social behavior
Animals
Australia
Behavior, Animal
Bottlenose Dolphins
Cooperative Behavior
DNA, Mitochondrial - analysis
Dolphins
Dolphins - classification
Dolphins - genetics
Dolphins - physiology
Female animals
Genetic relationships
Herding
Kinship
Male
Male animals
Marine
Mating behavior
Microsatellites
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial Dna Control Region
Nuclear Family
Tursiops aduncus
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Summary:Bottlenose dolphins are one of only a few mammalian taxa where the males are known to cooperate within their social group in order to maintain mating access to single females against other males. Male bonds in bottlenose dolphins have been hypothesized as evolving through kinship and associated inclusive fitness effects. In this study we tested whether individually identified male bottlenose dolphins preferentially associate and form alliances with kin in a small coastal resident population of southeastern Australia using a combination of behavioural data, genetic sexing, sequences of the mitochondrial DNA control region and nuclear microsatellite markers. Males generally associated significantly more often than expected with one to three other males, with whom they jointly herded females for mating. Associations and alliance membership were not associated with either maternal kinship or genetic relatedness. The majority of male pairs within alliances were randomly related, although high relatedness values were found between males of different alliances in the resident population. These findings indicate that mechanisms other than kin selection may be foremost in the development and maintenance of cooperation between male bottlenose dolphins.
ISSN:0962-8452
1471-2954
DOI:10.1098/rspb.2001.1756