Dolphins use objects to impress females


	Dolphins use objects to impress females

kelvin273

3-27-2008 12:48 AM

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science

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3-27-2008 7:19 AM

thisnamecantbetaken

Bowerbirds are "players" too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowerbird

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/8d32c960-0ad5-4546-8503-1c6cb12247e3/1750E293-970C-41BD-8C0C-6380F2FE343C/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.livescience.com/animals/080326-dolphin-carry.html" href="http://www.livescience.com/animals/080326-dolphin-carry.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.livescience.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/animals/080326-dolphin-carry.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.livescience.com/img/F239A461-1D18-49DD-8176-32453752AD26" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/animals/080326-dolphin-carry.html"><P>
Just as men can use fast cars or showy clothes to impress the ladies, so too do male Amazon river dolphins show off stuff to woo the opposite sex. 
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Among these dolphins, the attention-getter is a male carrying a branch or similar flotsam in its mouth. Such "player" behavior is a first to be documented in <A href="http://www.livescience.com/animals/071218-animal-divers.html">aquatic mammals</A> and, among land mammals, it has previously been seen only in chimpanzees and humans, researchers said. 
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The botos had often seemed to play with items such as sticks or lumps of hard clay, thrashing them against the surface of the water or tossing them with flicks of their heads. 
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One day scientists noticed that three botos that <A href="http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?s=animals&c=&l=on&pic=080325-amazon-dolphin-02.jpg&cap=Adult+male+Amazon+river+dolphins%2C+or+botos%2C+carry+natural+objects+such+as+sticks+and+rocks%2C+sometimes+throwing+them+or+thrashing+them+against+the+surface%2C+likely+to+impress+females.+Credit:+Tony+Martin.&title=">held objects</A>  in their mouths were all adult males. This prompted speculation that such behavior might not be play at all. 
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Martin and his colleagues found the overwhelming majority of those who carried items were adult males, which are larger and pinker than females. 
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