Dolphins smile at each other while playingaccording to a team of researchers, who have corroborated that visual communication has played a crucial role in complex social interactions in many species.
Dolphins are extremely playful, but little is known about how they, and other marine mammals, communicate during play.
A new investigation, the results of which are published today in the Cell Press magazine “iScience”, has proven that bottlenose dolphins use the “open mouth” facial expression – analogous to a smile – to communicate during social play.
Dolphins almost always use this facial expression when they are in the field of vision of their playmates, and when they perceive a “smile”, they respond in the same way 33% of the time, according to the extract provided to the media. communication by the scientific journal.
Dolphin play may include acrobatics, surfing, playing with objects, chasing and play fighting, and It is important that these activities are not misinterpreted as aggression, scientists have notedcoordinated by researchers from the University of Pisa.
Other mammals use facial expressions to communicate their playfulness.but until now it had not been studied whether marine mammals also used facial expressions to indicate that they were playing.
The open, relaxed mouth, seen in many social carnivores, in monkey play faces and even in human laughter, it is a universal sign of playwhich helps animals, and humans, signal that it is fun and thus avoid conflicts.
To investigate whether dolphins visually communicate their playfulness, researchers recorded captive bottlenose dolphins playing in pairs and while playing freely with their human trainers.