The rearing and socialization of bottlenose dolphin calves has been largely described as a female role, whether via direct maternal care or allomaternal parenting. Nevertheless, male associations have been observed but are rarely systematically investigated. This case study focused on the opportunistic occurrence of a single bottlenose calf and her associations with the mother, father and two unrelated allomothers in a captive setting. Observations were made postpartum of an adult male and his female calf multiple times per day over the course of the first year of the calf’s life, including social (proximity and orientation), aggressive (tail slapping/swatting, threats, jaw popping, chasing) and tactile behaviors. For comparative analyses, data were simultaneously collected on mother-calf and allomother interactions. The results revealed that cohabitation of the paternal male and offspring was prosocial, with negligible levels of aggression (0.03%) even during maternal estrous. The male demonstrated minimal aggressive behaviors toward the calf (e.g., chasing), none of which resulted in injury. Rather, the male’s interactions with the calf were considerably affiliative. Although the frequency of interactions between the paternal male and the calf were less than the mother’s, father-calf interactions were significantly more frequent than were calf interactions with other dolphins. Over the course of the study, the number of interactions the calf had with mother, father, and allomothers decreased. Overall, these results confirm that care can involve the paternal male, although the relative size of the enclosed setting limits extrapolations to the wild. Nonetheless, these observations suggest that some dolphin fathers may play a role in their calves’ social development and rearing.  Although additional research on calf socialization is required, the dolphin father in this study established and maintained a social bond with his female calf that was clearly affiliative, and these associations occurred significantly more often than those between the calf and her allomothers.

When analyzing animal behavior, it is important to consider the influence of learning principles. The create response of bottlenose dolphins, elicited by a discriminative stimulus, or an SD (visual cue presented to an animal by a trainer), has been described as an elective, often novel response based on arbitrary preferences of individual animals. The goal of this study was to identify the potential influence of reinforcement theory, response class, and primacy and recency on the create responses of bottlenose dolphins. Three, male subjects with an established mastery of the create paradigm, identified in this study as a non-specific, non-repeat contingency, were assessed over the course of two months while under stimulus control ( pre-assessment ), followed by evaluations of the create response ( create assessment ) using a double-blind sampling model. During the pre- and create assessments, each response was quantified regarding response class, frequency of request, and reinforcement type, frequency, and magnitude. When presented with the create SD, the dolphins elected to produce behaviors predominantly associated with the more recent training context (create assessment) versus behaviors associated with training that occurred months prior (pre-assessment), which may demonstrate the effects of primacy versus recency. Additionally, the create trials were associated with reinforcement on a high frequency and magnitude, fixed, low ratio schedule, and the subjects most often performed the behaviors associated with the greatest magnitude of primary reinforcement, which highlights the influence of reinforcement and the law of effects. Lastly, two subjects never responded with high energy behaviors in the create contingency, and one subject performed significantly more low and medium energy responses when compared to high energy behaviors, capturing the effects of a response class characterized by intensity under a fixed ratio reinforcement schedule. Thus, the create response was not represented by arbitrary elective preferences but rather, partially driven by the learning theories examined.