The rearing and socialization of bottlenose dolphin calves has been largely described as a female role, whether via direct maternal care or allomaternal parenting. Nevertheless, male associations ...have been observed but are rarely systematically investigated. This case study focused on the opportunistic occurrence of a single bottlenose calf and her associations with the mother, father and two unrelated allomothers in a captive setting. Observations were made postpartum of an adult male and his female calf multiple times per day over the course of the first year of the calf’s life, including social (proximity and orientation), aggressive (tail slapping/swatting, threats, jaw popping, chasing) and tactile behaviors. For comparative analyses, data were simultaneously collected on mother-calf and allomother interactions. The results revealed that cohabitation of the paternal male and offspring was prosocial, with negligible levels of aggression (0.03%) even during maternal estrous. The male demonstrated minimal aggressive behaviors toward the calf (e.g., chasing), none of which resulted in injury. Rather, the male’s interactions with the calf were considerably affiliative. Although the frequency of interactions between the paternal male and the calf were less than the mother’s, father-calf interactions were significantly more frequent than were calf interactions with other dolphins. Over the course of the study, the number of interactions the calf had with mother, father, and allomothers decreased. Overall, these results confirm that care can involve the paternal male, although the relative size of the enclosed setting limits extrapolations to the wild. Nonetheless, these observations suggest that some dolphin fathers may play a role in their calves’ social development and rearing. Although additional research on calf socialization is required, the dolphin father in this study established and maintained a social bond with his female calf that was clearly affiliative, and these associations occurred significantly more often than those between the calf and her allomothers.
Dolphins exchange information with conspecifics using different types of vocalizations that are often associated with specific behaviors. The present study used simultaneous acoustic and video ...recordings of captive bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in Honduras to describe potential correlations between the type of mouthing behavior (open mouth, mouthing, bite) and associated vocalizations (whistle, whistle-squawk, chirp, moan, burst-pulse ‘A’, burst-pulse ‘B’, clicks). Literature on sound-behavior relationships among odontocetes with the noted infrequent systematic analyses of mouth actions highlights the need for this investigation. The influence of aggression on vocalization use was also addressed. From this observational study a series of general expectations on the interaction of sound, mouth action, and aggressive context are presented. Mouth actions are associated with vocalizations more often than not, and results suggest an overall flexible association of vocalizations during mouth actions, with the production of various sounds altered during aggressive contexts. There is an apparent distinction of frequency-modulated sounds with mouthing, suggesting that frequency parameters are an important characteristic of information exchange during mouth actions, and further that mouth actions are individually distinct behaviors. A dichotomy of burst pulse sounds in association with aggressive and non-aggressive contexts also introduces the need to analyze pulsed sounds according to inter-pulse interval. This paper proposes that there may be an interactive function to the use of vocalizations during mouth actions that is not yet understood.
Behavior is lateralized when it is performed preferentially by one side of the body, and this phenomenon is seen across a wide range of vertebrate taxa. Furthermore the brain and body are ...contralateral in many animals, meaning that the left brain hemisphere most dominantly controls the right side of the body and vice versa. Lateralized behavior in humans and nonhuman primates reveals a population right-hand bias. Recent studies in primates have also begun to link differences in lateralized behavior to task complexity, and responses to novel versus familiar stimuli. Parallel research on cetaceans is sparse although evidence accrued over the last decade suggests captive dolphins have a preference for swimming counter-clockwise, a right-eye advantage in spatio-cognitive tasks and a right-eye preference for viewing novel objects, although this is the reverse of the general vertebrate pattern. Lateralized behavior was examined in a group of six male bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in response to a novel underwater maze, and compared to behavior during a baseline condition (no maze present). Dolphins were significantly more likely to swim counter-clockwise round their pool during both the baseline and maze condition, interpreted as a right eye bias. Swimming rotation was also weaker in dolphins during the maze condition, suggesting that the maze may have disrupted routine circular swimming behavior. There was no clear preference for using the left or right side of the maze, except in two high- using subjects with a strong right preference. Modifications and extensions to the methods are discussed.
We first introduce the joint semi-quantum operators of a finite family of random variables having finite moments of all orders. We then use the semi-quantum operators to characterize the ...one-dimensional Gamma and Gaussian distributions in terms of their commutators.
Understanding how habitat characteristics influence common bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, distribution and behavior can be useful for conservation. The dolphin community in Roanoke Sound, ...North Carolina primarily exhibits seasonal residency and there is limited information on their habitat use. The objectives of this study were to increase habitat use knowledge and determine the relationship between habitat characteristics and dolphin distribution using standardized photographic-identification data (2009 – 2017). A hot spot (Getis-Ord Gi*) analysis showed dolphins frequently use the southern region containing the mouth of the estuary for feeding and traveling. Habitat characteristics were modeled with zero-altered gamma (ZAG), generalized linear (GLM), and generalized additive (GAM) models to predict dolphin group density. Models showed that groups were more likely to be present in areas with greater benthic slope variation and shallow areas closer to land, and that different habitat characteristics were associated with feed, social, and travel activities. This study suggests that Roanoke Sound provides a seasonal foraging area and travel corridor between the estuaries and coastal waters. This information contributes baseline knowledge of how habitat potentially influences dolphin distribution and behavior which can be useful for management and conservation, especially in areas where habitat changes and impacts need to be assessed.
Wild bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) behavior is impacted by a number of factors including season, time of day, and age. However, less is known about how these factors may influence animals ...under professional care in zoos, aquariums and marine parks. Management practices such as scheduled feeding times, human interactions, lack of predators and show performances may also impact the activity budgets of dolphins. The current study examined the rest, swim and play behavior of seven dolphins (three adults, four calves) at one facility. Data were collected over the entire 24-hour day for a period of one year. Observed behaviors were recorded in mutually exclusive categories including rest, low intensity swim, high intensity swim, low intensity play, high intensity play and social play. Data were analyzed to determine how often dolphins engaged in particular behaviors and if activity budgets varied due to season, time of day and age. These dolphins spent the majority of their time in low intensity swim and low intensity play. The activity budget varied between observational periods. First, seasonal differences were found in low intensity swim, low intensity play, social play and high intensity play behaviors. In the comparison for time of day, differences were found in rest, low intensity swim, low intensity play and social play. Finally, no significant differences were found in age comparisons. Information gained from this study can help to better understand how different factors influence the behavior of bottlenose dolphins under professional care within zoos, aquariums and marine parks.
In the context of global criticism on urban sprawl, the questions which arises are: what can we do with the expansion forms already occurred in most part of our cities; can they be fully or partially ...integrated into the city? But first, which exactly are the common morphological features of urban expansion areas in large European cities, and (by comparison) in Romania? The urban form correlated to these „sparwl patterns” and „sprawl mechanisms” shows more then the lack of planning, but a social input in occuping the territory, related with a specific meaning of the landscape. The paper explores the relationship between the five distinct morphological patterns ways of forming in relation to spatial and landscape shapes which they generate, in the territories of sprawl, all illustrated through case studies of Bucharest.
Understanding how habitat characteristics influence common bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, distribution and behavior can be useful for conservation. The dolphin community in Roanoke Sound, ...North Carolina primarily exhibits seasonal residency and there is limited information on their habitat use. The objectives of this study were to increase habitat use knowledge and determine the relationship between habitat characteristics and dolphin distribution using standardized photographic-identification data (2009 – 2017). A hot spot (Getis-Ord Gi*) analysis showed dolphins frequently use the southern region containing the mouth of the estuary for feeding and traveling. Habitat characteristics were modeled with zero-altered gamma (ZAG), generalized linear (GLM), and generalized additive (GAM) models to predict dolphin group density. Models showed that groups were more likely to be present in areas with greater benthic slope variation and shallow areas closer to land, and that different habitat characteristics were associated with feed, social, and travel activities. This study suggests that Roanoke Sound provides a seasonal foraging area and travel corridor between the estuaries and coastal waters. This information contributes baseline knowledge of how habitat potentially influences dolphin distribution and behavior which can be useful for management and conservation, especially in areas where habitat changes and impacts need to be assessed.
We provide several inequalities for the ℒ
q
( )-norm of the Wick product of random variables. These estimates are based on a Jensen's type inequality for the Wick multiplication, which we derive via ...a positivity argument. As an application we study a certain type of anticipating stochastic differential equation whose solution is shown to be an element of ℒ
q
( ) for some q ≥ 1.
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