Cooperation-Based Concept Formation in Male Bottlenose Dolphins

Source: University of Western Australia research repository metadata page Authors: Stephanie L. King, Richard C. Connor, Michael Krützen, Simon J. Allen Date: 2021-12-01 Venue: Nature Communications 12(1)

Key points

• Examines a multilevel alliance system in male bottlenose dolphins: pairs or trios, larger second-order teams, and looser third-order alliances.
• Shows that males classify others by cooperative team membership at the second-order alliance level, not only by immediate dyadic bond strength.
• This is important for agents because it implies a useful distinction between local collaborators and wider coalition membership.
• The design analogue is that an agent may need to reason about nested team identity, not just one manager and one worker.