They make look pretty different to us, but it seems that when it comes to making friends, dolphins are actually very similar to humans.
A new study has revealed that dolphins form friendships through shared interests, just like humans.
Researchers from the Universities of Bristol, Zurich and Western Australia studied the behaviour of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay - a World Heritage area in Western Australia.
This location is the only place where dolphins have been observed using marine sponges as foraging tools. This technique helps certain dolphins, known as ‘spongers’ to find food in deeper water channels.
In the study, the researchers collected data from 37 male dolphins in Shark Bay over nine years, including 13 spongers and 24 non-spongers.
Their analysis revealed that spongers spent more time with other spongers than they did with non-spongers.
This indicates that bonds between dolphins may be based on similar foraging techniques.
Dr Simon Allen, a co-author of the study, said: “Foraging with a sponge is a time-consuming and largely solitary activity so it was long thought incompatible with the needs of male dolphins in Shark Bay – to invest time in forming close alliances with other males.
“This study suggests that, like their female counterparts and indeed like humans, male dolphins form social bonds based on shared interests.”
The similarities between dolphins and humans don't stop there.
Previous studies have shown that dolphins live in tightly-knit social groups and talk to each other, just like we do.
Dolphins also engage in cooperative hunting and pass on their skills to younger members of their group.
