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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Animal Sciences

2019

Social behavior

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Studying The Social Behavior And Preferences Of Polar Bears At The Columbus Zoo And Aquarium, Molly Seeberger Apr 2019

Studying The Social Behavior And Preferences Of Polar Bears At The Columbus Zoo And Aquarium, Molly Seeberger

Student Symposium

Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are relatively solitary animals unless it is breeding season. At the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, the polar bears participate in the Species Survival Plan where breeding for conservation efforts is encouraged. Lee, an 19-year-old male, came to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in the Fall of 2018 in hopes of breeding with 12-year-old twin females Aurora and Anana. Because Lee’s previous experience was only living with one female, I wanted to observe whether he would prefer a particular female because he now had two females to choose from. Not only did I look for preference, but …

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Dolphins In Space: Quantifying The Relative Positions Of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), Megan S. Mcgrath Feb 2019

Dolphins In Space: Quantifying The Relative Positions Of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), Megan S. Mcgrath

Theses and Dissertations

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are socially sophisticated mammals with high fission-fusion dynamics and complex communication. The relative positioning of individual dolphins as they swim within their social group may aid in the expression of social roles. This study sought to quantify relative positioning in a small social group of female bottlenose dolphins at the National Aquarium in Baltimore that included two mother-daughter pairs, maternal and paternal half-sisters, a half-aunt and niece, and one unrelated female. We devised a method for scoring relative positioning in three dimensions. We found that the two mothers and their juvenile and adult daughters …

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