A division of labour with role specialization in group–hunting bottlenose dolphins (
            <i>Tursiops truncatus</i>
            ) off Cedar Key, Florida

Gazda, Stefanie K.; Connor, Richard C.; Edgar, Robert K.; Cox, Frank

doi:10.1098/rspb.2004.2937

Cited by 224 publications

(158 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Operating on a higher energy budget would render a larger brain more affordable. An obvious weakness of this hypothesis is that even the small-brained Pontoporia feeds on schooling fish (Bassoi 2005 Gazda et al 2005), then the hypothesis is feasible. I also note that a prominent function of the delphinid whistle is to maintain contact over distances (Smolker et al 1993;Janik & Slater 1998), an important ability for coordinated group hunting (Herman & Tavolga 1980).…”

Section: Paying the Costs (A) Brains Food And Metabolic Rates In Dolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dolphin social intelligence: complex alliance relationships in bottlenose dolphins and a consideration of selective environments for extreme brain size evolution in mammals

Connor

2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

227

229

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Bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, live in a large, unbounded society with a fission-fusion grouping pattern. Potential cognitive demands include the need to develop social strategies involving the recognition of a large number of individuals and their relationships with others. Patterns of alliance affiliation among males may be more complex than are currently known for any non-human, with individuals participating in 2-3 levels of shifting alliances. Males mediate alliance relationships with gentle contact behaviours such as petting, but synchrony also plays an important role in affiliative interactions. In general, selection for social intelligence in the context of shifting alliances will depend on the extent to which there are strategic options and risk. Extreme brain size evolution may have occurred more than once in the toothed whales, reaching peaks in the dolphin family and the sperm whale. All three 'peaks' of large brain size evolution in mammals (odontocetes, humans and elephants) shared a common selective environment: extreme mutual dependence based on external threats from predators or conspecific groups. In this context, social competition, and consequently selection for greater cognitive abilities and large brain size, was intense.

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Section: Paying the Costs (A) Brains Food And Metabolic Rates In Dolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dolphin social intelligence: complex alliance relationships in bottlenose dolphins and a consideration of selective environments for extreme brain size evolution in mammals

Connor

2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

227

229

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“…Nevertheless, group hunting is commonly observed (e.g., African lions, Panthera leo (Scheel and Packer 1991); bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops spp. (Gazda et al 2005); African wild dogs, Crocuta crocuta (Creel andCreel 1995, 2002)). One possible explanation for its widespread occurrence is that group hunting is 'cooperative', i.e., that an individual's net payoff is higher when hunting with others than when hunting solitarily (Packer and Ruttan 1988;Mesterton-Gibbons and Dugatkin 1992;Clements and Stephens 1995).…”

Section: Why Hunt In Groups?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The meat-scrap hypothesis: small quantities of meat may promote cooperative hunting in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Tennie

Gilby

Mundry

2008

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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A common explanation for hunting in groups is that doing so yields a greater per capita caloric benefit than hunting solitarily. This is logical for social carnivores, which rely exclusively on meat for energy, but arguably not for omnivores, which obtain calories from either plant or animal matter. The common chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes, is one of the few true omnivores that regularly hunts in groups. Studies to date have yielded conflicting data regarding the payoffs of group hunting in chimpanzees. Here, we interpret chimpanzee hunting patterns using a new approach. In contrast to the classical assumption that hunting with others maximizes per capita caloric intake, we propose that group hunting is favored because it maximizes an individual's likelihood of obtaining important micronutrients that may be found in small quantities of meat. We describe a mathematical model demonstrating that group hunting may evolve when individuals can obtain micronutrients more frequently by hunting in groups than by hunting solitarily, provided that group size is below a certain threshold. Twenty five years of data from Gombe National Park, Tanzania are consistent with this prediction.We propose that our 'meat-scrap' hypothesis is a unifying approach that may explain group hunting by chimpanzees and other social omnivores.

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“…Stander (1992) distinguished between Namibian lioness "wings" that initiated hunts by stalking and circling their prey and lioness "centers" that captured the prey once it was driven towards them. Similarly, among two bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) groups in the Cedar Keys, Florida, one animal repeatedly assumed the role of the "driver" that steered the fish towards 2-5 closely spaced "barrier" animals (Gazda et al, 2005). In another example, once groups of Dusky dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obscurus) corralled southern anchovies (Engraulis anchoita) into a ball at the surface, individual animals took turns to break rank and swim through the ball to eat a mouthful of fish before rejoining the group corralling effort (Würsig & Würsig, 1980;Würsig, 1986).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Orchestration : the movement and vocal behavior of free-ranging Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca)

Shapiro¹

2008

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Studying the social and cultural transmission of behavior among animals helps to identify patterns of interaction and information content flowing between individuals. Killer whales are likely to acquire traits culturally based on their population-specific feeding behaviors and group-distinctive vocal repertoires. I used digital tags to explore the contributions of individual Norwegian killer whales to group carousel feeding and the relationships between vocal and non-vocal activity.Periods of tail slapping to incapacitate herring during feeding were characterized by elevated movement variability, heightened vocal activity and call types containing additional orientation cues. Tail slaps produced by tagged animals were identified using a rapid pitch change and occurred primarily within 20m of the surface. Two simultaneously tagged animals maneuvered similarly when tail slapping within 60s of one another, indicating that the position and composition of the herring ball influenced their behavior.Two types of behavioral sequence preceding the tight circling of carousel feeding were apparent. First, the animals engaged in periods of directional swimming. They were silent in 2 of 3 instances, suggesting they may have located other foraging groups by eavesdropping. Second, tagged animals made broad horizontal loops as they dove in a manner consistent with corralling. All 4 of these occasions were accompanied by vocal activity, indicating that this and tail slapping may benefit from social communication. No significant relationship between the call types and the actual movement measurements was found.Killer whale vocalizations traditionally have been classified into discrete call types. Using human speech processing techniques, I considered that calls are alternatively comprised of shared segments that can be recombined to form the stereotyped and variable repertoire. In a classification experiment, the characterization of calls using the whole call, a set of unshared segments, or a set of shared segments yielded equivalent performance. The shared segments required less information to parse the same vocalizations, suggesting a more parsimonious system of representation.This closer examination of the movements and vocalizations of Norwegian killer 3 whales, combined with future work on ontogeny and transmission, will inform our understanding of whether and how culture plays a role in achieving population-specific behaviors in this species. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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A division of labour with role specialization in group–hunting bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops truncatus ) off Cedar Key, Florida

Cited by 224 publications

References 20 publications

Dolphin social intelligence: complex alliance relationships in bottlenose dolphins and a consideration of selective environments for extreme brain size evolution in mammals

Dolphin social intelligence: complex alliance relationships in bottlenose dolphins and a consideration of selective environments for extreme brain size evolution in mammals

The meat-scrap hypothesis: small quantities of meat may promote cooperative hunting in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Orchestration : the movement and vocal behavior of free-ranging Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca)

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