导读：最新科学研究表明，海豚似乎有内心黑暗的一面，它们生活在一个“开放的社会”，以极端手段进行性行为来建立权威。“当我眼睁睁地看着它们那么复杂的性生活，我觉得他们在精神上和肉体上都已经筋疲力尽了。这些复杂的过程就像‘肥皂剧’一样不断上演，我很庆幸自己不是一只海豚。”
据国外媒体报道，最新科学研究表明，海豚似乎有内心黑暗的一面，它们生活在一个“开放的社会”，以极端手段进行性行为来建立权威。
科研人员发现，海洋哺乳动物有着复杂的社会生活，它们的生活是一种“开放的社会”，它们会定期与同伴发生同性恋或者双性恋的性交关系。这是国际科学家小组花费6年时间得出的结论，他们研究了澳大利亚西部鲨鱼湾的120只宽吻海豚。
研究发现雄性宽吻海豚会组成联盟来保护这个团队里的雌性宽吻海豚防止它们受到其它群体的攻击。在某些情况下，雄性宽吻海豚会通过强行跟其它雄性同伴进行性交来彰显权威。
在《皇家学会学报B》期刊论文的报告中，科学家给出了一个结论：“高度智能化的哺乳动物都生活在“开放的社会。”这项研究的研究人员之一，理查德•康纳教授说：“雄性海豚的性生活是非常激烈的。当我眼睁睁地看着它们那么复杂的性生活，我觉得他们在精神上和肉体上都已经筋疲力尽了。这些复杂的过程就像‘肥皂剧’一样不断上演，我很庆幸自己不是一只海豚。”
研究小组还发现这些宽吻海豚在交配的季节还会组织分为三个不同类型的团队。第一队通常成对或三五成群，它们负责在交配的季节找到能生育的雌性海豚。第二个团对则由4-14只雄性海豚组成，在其它群体想抢走自己团队雌性海豚时，进行抵御攻击。第三个团队是负责自己的群体于其它海豚群体的友好关系。
A novel mammalian social structure in Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.): complex male alliances in an open social network
Srđan Randić, Richard C. Connor, William B. Sherwin and Michael Krützen
Terrestrial mammals with differentiated social relationships live in ‘semi-closed groups’ that occasionally accept new members emigrating from other groups. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) in Shark Bay, Western Australia, exhibit a fission–fusion grouping pattern with strongly differentiated relationships, including nested male alliances. Previous studies failed to detect a group membership ‘boundary’, suggesting that the dolphins live in an open social network. However, two alternative hypotheses have not been excluded. The community defence model posits that the dolphins live in a large semi-closed ‘chimpanzee-like’ community defended by males and predicts that a dominant alliance(s) will range over the entire community range. The mating season defence model predicts that alliances will defend mating-season territories or sets of females. Here, both models are tested and rejected: no alliances ranged over the entire community range and alliances showed extensive overlap in mating season ranges and consorted females. The Shark Bay dolphins, therefore, present a combination of traits that is unique among mammals: complex male alliances in an open social network. The open social network of dolphins is linked to their relatively low costs of locomotion. This reveals a surprising and previously unrecognized convergence between adaptations reducing travel costs and complex intergroup–alliance relationships in dolphins, elephants and humans.
