but how do dolphins identify females vs males?
Without a link, this is just a disembodied post. What are you referring to?
I believe the OP is referring to the fact that dolphins do not have external genitalia. A male dolphin’s penis is normally concealed inside their body and it only comes out when they’re about to have sex. So somebody seeing a dolphin would not be able to easily tell the difference between a male and a female.
But I’m assuming other dolphins can spot the subtler differences.
Lack of facial hair.
Sonar might help.
This is presumably the article this is in reference to.
I suspect the OP might be asking how dolphins tell human sexes apart.
I suspect they don’t, at least not well, but pushy behaviour by male dolphins toward a female or AFAB handler is more likely to be noted (rightly or wrongly) as sexual than toward a male handler.
That does look like the case based on the context of the column you and Max S. have linked to. In my defense, I didn’t have a lot to work with when I made my previous speculation and I assumed the OP was asking about dolphin-on-dolphin rape.
Why are you assuming a dolphin would only rape a female?
The article in question mentions that most reports of male dolphins being sexually aggressive toward humans involve women.
I still say that’s likely a matter of assumptions on the part of the reporters - if a dolphin gets pushy with a man, people will just assume he’s being aggressive in general unless Li’l Flipper is out, if he does with a woman, they’ll assume he has carnal intent regardless.
As cited in the post directly preceding yours, “[…]dolphins have […] a rare type of penis that’s always mostly erect.”
~Max
Erect, it might be, but it is also hidden inside when not in use.
See pictures here (safe for work, as long as you don’t actually play the video at bottom).
Oh, ok.
~Max
In 2012-2013 the scuba diving community in the Cayman Islands had several reports of rather aggressive mounting behaviour of a lone male dolphin nicknamed Stinky.
YouTube video of an incident show Stinky’s winky. For good measure I’m adhering to the two click rule:
Like everything else, there’s a subreddit for that.