Alexander D.M. Wilson / Aquatic Mammals In an upcoming paper for
the journal Aquatic Mammals, a pair of scientists detail a
series of interactions between an adult bottlenose dolphin with
scoliosis - "highly pronounced curvature of the spine " - and a
group of sperm whales in the Azores. The scientists describe
their research as the first time sperm whales have been observed
interacting in a non-aggressive way with a member of a different
species. In other words: They repeatedly spotted a dolphin with
a messed up back hanging out with a group of sperm whales. The
paper's authors, Alexander Wilson and Jens Krause, write that
the whales treated the dolphin as a "conspecific" - a member of
the same species - "at times both permitting and initiating
physical contact." They also say that the interactions went
beyond "simple tolerance." "Initially, we thought it was a very
unusual interaction as sperm whales are not known to show non-
aggressive behaviors to other species of cetaceans, however at
this point we thoug