Solitary bottlenose dolphins in comparative perspective

Many mammal populations include solitary individuals. These individuals could be solitary for short or long periods and involve more or less spatial separation from conspecifics. A variety of accepted socio-ecology variables such as food availability, predator pressure, and reproductive strategies can account for much solitary behaviour. However, other factors, such as human interference, disease and the individual variability evident in many mammals may also be significant in some cases. The reasons dolphins become solitary are common to many mammalian species, but the response of some dolphins to the solitary state, including a redirection of social responses to humans or other species, could be unique to the Delphinidae.