Fresh findings published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences led by researchers from the University of Bristol and University of Western Australia, show that juvenile male dolphins with strong social bonds practice adult-like reproductive behaviours when playing together, and those juvenile males who spend more time practicing will father more offspring as adults. The study provides rare evidence for a link between juvenile social play and reproductive success in a wild animal.

In collaboration with international colleagues, the scientists spent years observing the behaviour of juvenile male Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia, and using long-term behavioural and genetic data from this population, they investigated the role of juvenile social play in developing adult male reproductive behaviour.

Lead author Dr Katy Holmes, who completed this work as part of her doctoral research at the University of Western Australia, said: “We found that juvenile play involves immature versions of adult reproductive behaviours that are crucial for males to access and mate with estrous females, and the time spent doing these play behaviours predicts how many offspring males eventually sire as adults.”

Read the full University of Bristol news story

Paper: ‘Juvenile social play predicts adult reproductive success in male bottlenose dolphins’ Kathryn G. Holmes, Michael Krützen, Amanda R. Ridley, Simon J. Allen, Richard C. Connor, Livia Gerber, Cindy Flaherty Stamm and Stephanie L. King in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences