Most species of ant live their complex lives the honest, hardworking way: the ‘workers’ do the work, and the ‘sexuals’ mate and disperse, spreading the queen’s genes far and wide by founding more colonies. But some species have found devious ways to avoid doing any work at all.
Dolphins are great communicators - they keep track of each other in constantly changing social groups by using a range of vocalisations, or ‘whistles’, which they learn from those around them. For some time, scientists have been interested in the fact that individuals seem to develop their own ‘signature whistles’, which they use to identify themselves. But the behaviour of male dolphins in Western Australia has suggested that individual identity may sometimes be relinquished in favour of group identity.