Epidemiological investigation of tattoo-like skin lesions among bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia.

Shark Bay Bottlenose Dolphins: A Case Study for Defi ning and Measuring Sociality

Bottlenose dolphins are attractive candidates for the application of social network analysis (SNA), in part because of their complex fi ssion–fusion social organization characterized by dynamic, temporally variable groups. In Shark Bay, Western Australia, researchers have studied the resident bottlenose dolphins since 1982. Using data on two calves from the Shark Bay dataset, here we present a ...

Why do Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) carry conch shells (Turbinella sp.) in Shark Bay, Western Australia?

Epidemiology of tattoo skin disease in captive common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus): Are males more vulnerable than females?

Clinical and epidemiological features of tattoo skin disease (TSD) are reported for 257 common bottlenose dolphins held in 31 facilities in the Northern Hemisphere. Photographs and biological data of 146 females and 111 males were analyzed. Dolphins were classified into three age classes: 0-3 years, 4-8 years, and older than 9 years. From 2012 to 2014, 20.6% of the 257 dolphins showed clinical ...

Characterizing the socially transmitted foraging tactic sponging by bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) in the western gulf of Shark Bay, Western Australia

Individual foraging tactics are widespread in animals and have ecological and evolutionary implications. Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) in Shark Bay, Western Australia, exhibit a foraging tactic involving tool use, called “sponging.” Sponging is vertically, socially transmitted through the matriline and, to date, has been described in detail in the eastern gulf of Shark Bay (ES...

A novel mammalian social structure in Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.): complex male alliances in an open social network.

Terrestrial mammals with differentiated social relationships live in 'semi-closed groups' that occasionally accept new members emigrating from other groups. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) in Shark Bay, Western Australia, exhibit a fission-fusion grouping pattern with strongly differentiated relationships, including nested male alliances. Previous studies failed to detect a group membership ...