Here are 3 people-animal collaborations besides dolphins and Brazilians

Humans and animals have cooperated throughout history. But it’s rare and at risk of disappearing
A fisher stands in waist-deep water with a fishing line as he looks at a dolphin breaking through the surface



Fishers (one shown) in the southern Brazilian city of Laguna work together with dolphins to catch elusive mullet.

M. CANTOR ET AL/PNAS 2023

By Darren Incorvaia

FEBRUARY 3, 2023 AT 5:05 PM

We’ve all heard that dogs are a man’s best friend, but our canine companions don’t make up the entirety of humankind’s friend circle. Humans have cooperated with wild animals throughout our evolutionary history, forming reciprocally beneficial relationships known to biologists as mutualisms.

One particularly piscine partnership that made headlines recently can be found in Brazil, where fishers catch nets full of fish with the aid of the local bottlenosed dolphin (Tursiops truncatus gephyreus).

This team-up started over a century ago, probably when fishers first noticed that the presence of dolphins was a clue that fish were hiding in the murky water, says Mauricio Cantor, a behavioral ecologist at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute in Newport.

“The dolphins are really good at detecting fish and herding them toward the coast,” he says, “and the fishers are really good at trapping the fish with their net.” Once the fish are mostly secured in the net, the dolphins are sure to snag a few for themselves.

More:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/human-animal-collaboration-dolphins-brazil