Rival teams of male dolphins form the animal world’s biggest social networks, long-running study finds

and coming to one another’s aid should rivals attempt to spirit away a female. Those with the strongest social bonds spend the most time with females, thus increasing their chances of reproducing. “They’re making strategic social decisions,” says Connor, who suspects dolphins use their big brains in part to remember which individuals came to their aid and which ones fled during fights.

Cooperation isn’t exactly rare in the animal kingdom—animals from social insects to lions, wolves and spotted hyenas, and many primates cooperate; some, such as chimpanzees and bonobos, even do so with nonrelatives. . But none of these species form “multilevel alliances to accomplish goals,” says Athena Aktipis, a cooperation theorist at Arizona State University. “It’s interesting and cool that the dolphins do.

Wrangham adds that Connor’s decadeslong study constitutes some of the most compelling support for the “social brain hypothesis,” the idea that the need to keep track of numerous social relationships drove the evolution of large brains and intelligence. The dolphins provide “a dramatic demonstration of the positive correlation between brain size and social complexity,” he says.

Anthropologists have argued that human intergroup cooperation is unique and tied to the evolution of bonds between males and females and the role of males in taking care of offspring. These long-lasting pair bonds lead to extended social networks because both partners have relatives interested in ensuring the survival of their genes. But in dolphins, as in chimpanzees, males and females don’t form lasting pairs and males don’t help with parenting.

In other words, there’s more than one way for these highly complex alliances to evolve, says Frans de Waal, an emeritus primatologist at Emory University. “It’s good to ponder that there may be multiple evolutionary paths to this outcome.”

Gang rape works.

Humans should employ similar strategies to address the declining birth rates.

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