December 06, 2007	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 25, 1428

PARIS: A man may bring flowers to impress women, but male Amazon river dolphins carry weeds to win over the opposite sex, British and Brazilian researchers say.

The discovery comes from a three-year study of more than

6,000 groups of dolphins in Mamiraua, a flooded rainforest reserve in the Amazonian, British weekly New Scientist reports in its next issue.

Of these groups, 221 included at least one dolphin, usually a male, that carried an object, such as weed, a stick or clay. The groups also usually contained an adult female.

Aggression between adult males in the “object-carrying groups” was far higher than in other groups, which points to the carrying behaviour being a sexual display rather than a form of play, say the researchers.

The interpretation is backed by genetic analyses of tissue samples collected from adults and calves that suggests some of the most frequent object-carriers are among the most successful fathers.

Only humans and chimps are known to do anything similar as a show of prowess to win over a mating partner.—AFP