Say It Ain't So: Flipper, Gang Leader?

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Sept 6, 1999 | by Stephen Goode

Life comes loaded with disillusionments, but here's one that for the people never thought it would have to confront. Not only was the movie icon Flipper most probably not the sweet, bubbly, naively enthusiastic and always-on-the-side-of-the-underdog critter which moviegoers (or at least some of them) had come to love and marvel over. He most likely was the polar opposite: nasty, brutish, aggressive and out for what's best for No. 1.

It seems that the male bottle-nosed dolphins are in the habit of forming rather vicious gangs of three or more members. They work in concert to capture females of their species by chasing the smaller and weaker gals, thudding up against them, biting the damsels and then mating with them.

In addition, the gangs often carry out their raids to capture the females of other male bottle-nosed-dolphin gangs, resulting in fights that can be pretty grim indeed -- and the gangs stay together for as long as 12 years, according to University of Massachusetts scientist Richard Connor, who published his findings in a recent issue of New Scientist.

His discovery that the dolphin gangs are long-lived led Connor to compare them to the mob. "These guys have a talent for politicking and alliance-building that would shame the Mafia," Connor told the Associated Press. "By forming a more fluid coalition, they seem to be able to take on all comers," he explained. Connor spent more than 10 years studying bottle-nosed dolphins off the coast of Western Australia.