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Full-Text Articles in Marine Biology

Abundance, Site-Fidelity, And Association Patterns Of Coastal Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) Off Southeast Florida, Graysen D. Boehning Jul 2022

Abundance, Site-Fidelity, And Association Patterns Of Coastal Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) Off Southeast Florida, Graysen D. Boehning

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

The coastal bottlenose dolphin is well studied throughout its natural range, however, most of the study areas comprised wide, well-protected habitats such as bays and estuaries, and not narrow coastal sandbanks. This study identifies a residential group of coastal bottlenose dolphins utilizing the narrow sandbanks within the Northwestern Atlantic waters off the coast of Palm Beach County, Florida, USA. From 2014-2020, 313 boat surveys were conducted, and 585 individual dolphins were identified using photo-ID. Twenty-four animals were determined to be full-time and 66 animals were determined to be part-time residents. Full-time and part-time residents associated in three social tribes, with …


Intraspecific Aggression Towards Common Bottlenose Dolphin Calves, Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Errol Ronje, Sarah Piwetz, Heidi Whitehead, Keith D. Mullin Jan 2020

Intraspecific Aggression Towards Common Bottlenose Dolphin Calves, Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Errol Ronje, Sarah Piwetz, Heidi Whitehead, Keith D. Mullin

Gulf and Caribbean Research

Infanticide has been widely documented throughout the animal kingdom, and has generally been viewed as an evolved, or adaptive behavior for the perpetrators. Infanticide motivated by increased sexual access to females with calves, or the elimination of potential genetic competition in the form of calf-directed aggression or infanticide, has been proposed for delphinids including killer whales, Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, Guiana dolphins, and bottlenose dolphins. However, reports of intraspecific aggression towards bottlenose dolphin calves are relatively infrequent, and accounts of confirmed infanticide are rarer still. Reporting instances of intraspecific calf-directed aggression aids researchers to better understand the socio-behavioral context of these …


Evidence For Infanticide In Bottlenose Dolphins Of The Western North Atlantic, Dale G. Dunn, Susan G. Barco, D. Ann Pabst, William A. Mclellan Jan 2002

Evidence For Infanticide In Bottlenose Dolphins Of The Western North Atlantic, Dale G. Dunn, Susan G. Barco, D. Ann Pabst, William A. Mclellan

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Nine bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) calves that stranded in Virginia in 1996 and 1997 died of severe blunt-force trauma. Injuries were concentrated on the head and chest and multiple rib fractures, lung lacerations, and soft tissue contusions were prominent. Skeletal and/or soft tissue trauma occurred bilaterally in all of the calves. One had a bite wound across the left mandible that exhibited deep punctures consistent with the tooth placement in an adult bottlenose dolphin. The lesions were not compatible with predation, boat strike, fisheries interactions, rough-surf injury, or blast injury. However, they were similar to traumatic injuries described in stranded …