Dolphins age much like we do. As they get older, they have to reckon with increased lethargy, fading eyesight, and stiffer movements.

A new study, published in Communications Biology, suggests that dolphins can slow the march of time with a little help from their friends.

Researchers studying a pod of dolphins in Shark Bay, a marine hotspot in Western Australia, found that male dolphins that formed strong social bonds with other males aged more slowly than their solitary peers.

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Dolphin Social Groups

Socializing among dolphins is divided by sex. Female dolphins form fluid bonds with other females based on raising offspring at a similar time. Male dolphins, by contrast, form lifelong bonds with other males.

These animals hunt, swim, and even hang out together. Researchers have seen male dolphin duos playing and surfing waves for fun. Livia Gerber, a biologist at the University of New South Wales and a coauthor on the new research, said in a press release, “it reminds me of two kindergarten buddies who stay together through school, careers, and retirement and share all of life’s joys and challenges.”

These strong bonds aren’t just for fun. Without a friend at their side, solitary dolphins find it harder to hunt and are more vulnerable to predators like sharks. These difficulties add up, making a solitary life in the ocean more stressful.

Similarities Between Humans and Dolphin Friendships

In both dolphins and humans, lifelong stress is a key driver of the aging process. To study the relationship between socializing, stress, and aging in their dolphin population, the researchers used a massive behavioral data resource built up over 40 years of study. Dolphins that have close social bonds spend much of their time together. By recording which dolphins they saw hanging out together when they explored the bay on a boat, the team built up a “who’s who” of dolphin connections.

The team identified male dolphins for whom they had accurate age data. The team had skin tissue samples from 38 of these animals, allowing them to assess key markers of aging.

Previous animal research has identified that social bonds help animals live longer, extending their chronological age. The team instead studied biological aging by studying chemical tags in the dolphins’ DNA called epigenetic markers. Biological aging provides a more complete picture of an animal’s health and physiology, but no previous research has assessed how it is affected by socialization.

Epigenetic markers have been used in humans to assess the effects of pollution, poor mental health, and poverty on aging. Lee Rollins, a biologist at the University of New South Wales and the study’s senior author, said in a press release, “increasingly, we are also using epigenetic data to advance our knowledge of the ecology of wild populations, including the epigenetic clocks used here.”

Friends and Long Life

The epigenetic markers showed that well-socialized dolphins had a lower biological age than their lonelier peers born in the same year.

“The health benefits of friendship are not unique to humans, but are a fundamental biological principle across social mammals. This research should change how we think about animal welfare and remind us that social needs are biological needs,” said Gerber.

The researchers believe that future work will show their findings hold across animal species that form tight and enduring social bonds. “I am predicting that we will find that friendship is a natural anti-aging secret across social animals,” Gerber concluded.

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Article Sources

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:

• This article references information from a study published in the journal Communications Biology: Social bonds decrease epigenetic age in male bottlenose dolphins