SYDNEY, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) — Male bottlenose dolphins with strong friendships age more slowly than their more solitary peers, an Australian-led study has found.
The research by Australia’s University of New South Wales (UNSW) reveals for the first time in any non-human species that social bonds can slow ageing at the cellular level, a UNSW media release said Monday.
Dolphins, like humans, experience age-related changes, including reduced energy, wear to the skin, slower movement and fading eyesight. But scientists said they also have access to a powerful, natural anti-ageing serum: their friends, it said.
“We knew social bonds helped animals live longer, but this is the first time we’ve shown they affect the ageing process,” said study lead author Livia Gerber, who conducted the study at UNSW and now works at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australia’s national science agency.
“Social connections are so important for health that they slow down ageing at the cellular level,” Gerber said.
Dolphin friendships often last for decades, with males surfing waves together, resting side-by-side, and forming deep alliances akin to human bonds. In contrast, solitary dolphins face stressful lives, hunting alone, competing for mates without support, and confronting predators solo, accelerating ageing much like in humans, researchers said.
The study analyzed skin tissue samples from 38 bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, the state of Western Australia, to measure their “biological age” using DNA-based epigenetic clocks.
The study, published in Nature Communications Biology, found that male dolphins with stronger, tighter social networks showed slower biological ageing, and therefore likely had easier lives.
“The health benefits of friendship are not unique to humans, but a fundamental biological principle across social mammals,” Gerber said, hoping to see similar studies in elephants, primates, wolves and other highly social species.
