It may sound like a headline from The Onion, but scientists now believe they have isolated the first evidence of cliquish behavior in animals. A sub-set of Bottlenose dolphins specialize in hunting with sponges, and it turns out that these sponge hunters form stronger, closer bonds with other sponge hunters.
The interesting thing about this observation is that sponge hunting is a solitary activity. It's not as though the sponge hunting dolphins are all spending more time with each other. To the contrary, these dolphins tend to be loners. But when they meet other sponge hunters, the dolphins seem to bond immediately, and those bonds carry over for years, even with all the time they spend apart.
