Association patterns and community structure among female bottlenose dolphins: environmental, genetic and cultural factors.

ABSTRACT: Social structuring from assortative associations may affect individual fitness, as well as population-level processes. Gaining a broader understanding of social structure can improve our knowledge of social evolution and inform wildlife conservation. We investigated association patterns and community structure of female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in Shark Bay, Western Australia, assessing the role of kinship, shared culturally transmitted foraging techniques, and habitat similarity based on water depth. Our results indicated that associations are influenced by a combination of uni- and biparental relatedness, cultural behaviour and habitat similarity, as these were positively correlated with a measure of dyadic association. These findings were matched in a c

SUBMITTER: Marfurt SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10040398 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature