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UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Academic -- UNF -- Biology; social structure; half-weight index; male alliance; tooth rake mark; Tursiops truncatus
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Full-Text Articles in Marine Biology
The Social Structure And Mating Strategies Of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) In The St. Johns River, Jessica Lea Ermak
The Social Structure And Mating Strategies Of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) In The St. Johns River, Jessica Lea Ermak
UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Across populations, bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) exhibit a fission-fusion pattern of associations, in which group size and composition change fluidly throughout the day. Beneath this seemingly ephemeral social structure, considerable variation exists across study sites. While females typically have moderate bonds with one another within a large social network, male-male bonds are variable, though males typically take one of two strategies; some males encounter females individually for opportunities to breed while others cooperate within a first-order alliance to collectively herd females. In addition, multi-tiered alliances in which two first-order alliances cooperate to defend or assist in the theft of a …