SOME animals are born socialites, it seems. Just a few genial dolphins keep dolphin societies together, and if they disappear, the social cohesion of the pod collapses.
That means that capturing wild animals, taking killer whales for displays in marine parks, for instance, could have unforeseen consequences for their companions left behind.
Ecologist David Lusseau of the University of Aberdeen, UK, studied the social lives of a community of 62 bottlenose dolphins in the Doubtful Sound, New Zealand, from 1994 to 2001. He kept track of individual animals via photographs showing the markings on their dorsal fins. Lusseau then worked…
