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Humpback whales are not renowned for having a complex social structure.
During the breeding season they do not form long-term and repeated associations with individuals, but instead, have a fluid system where groups of males and females form temporarily.
However, male-male conflict behaviour in humpback whales, when studying it through the prism of male social networks, involves a complex decision-making process. This complexity suggests a form of social intelligence in this species. In addition, their social communication is also relatively complex compared to many other mammalian species.
Given that communicative complexity and social complexity go hand in hand, perhaps humpback whales are not the socially simple species we once thought.