Female Dolphins Seem to Remember Which Males Were Aggressive During Mating Season—and May Try to Avoid Them

Alexis Rosenfeld / Getty Images Humans remember when they’ve been treated badly and often use those past experiences to decide who to spend time with—and who to avoid. Now, new research suggests female bottlenose dolphins may rely on a similar strategy for managing their relationships.

According to a study published on June 1 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins can identify males by their “signature whistles,” or unique noises that individual dolphins make to identify themselves, similar to a nametag. Females seem to use the whistles to remember which males were pushy and aggressive during past mating seasons and may try to avoid those individuals moving forward.

“Females are using knowledge of individuals. That, to me, is super interesting,” Laela Sayigh, a cetacean behavior and communication researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute who was not involved with the study, tells National Geographic’s Bethany Augliere. “To my knowledge, this is the first time that there really has been a study of how these communication signals are used in mate choice.”