This study aims to assess niche segregation among the five main toothed whales 25 that frequent the NW Iberian Peninsula waters: the common dolphin, the harbour porpoise, 26 the bottlenose dolphin, the striped dolphin and the long-finned pilot whale. We used cadmium 27 (Cd) and stable isotope ratios (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) as ecological tracers to assess degree of 28 segregation in diet/trophic lev...

Despite an increase in the number of stranded dolphins rehabilitated and returned to the wild, the survivorship of these cetaceans is poorly documented. Since rehabilitation and release programs remain limited in scope, the release of dolphins from different age and sex cohorts provides information that is pertinent to protocols for future release candidates. Novel opportunities to track the su...

We investigated the behavioural changes of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins Tursiops aduncus in response to boat-based tourism at both group and individual levels. The behaviour, movement and dive patterns of nursing females off the south coast of Zanzibar were investigated between January and March 2000 to 2002 and statistical comparisons were made between observations made at different levels...

The isolation and characterization of two bacterial species, Streptococcus agalactiae and Lactococcus garvieae, previously unreported in wild marine mammals are described from a freshly dead bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, from Kuwait Bay, Kuwait, in September 2001. Conventional and rapid identification systems were used to determine that isolates from muscle and kidney were S. agalacti...

Simplified Dolphin Echolocation (SDE) optimization is an improved version of the Dolphin Echolocation optimization. The dolphin echolocation (DE) is a recently proposed metaheuristic algorithm, which was imitated dolphin’s hunting process. The global or near global optimum solution modeled as dolphin’s bait, dolphins send sound in different directions to discover the best bait among their searc...

A signature whistle type is a learned, individually distinctive whistle type in a dolphin's acoustic repertoire that broadcasts the identity of the whistle owner. The acquisition and use of signature whistles indicates complex cognitive functioning that requires wider investigation in wild dolphin populations. Here we identify signature whistle types from a population of approximately 100 wild ...

This article reports on operator compliance with regulations regarding humans swimming with freeranging bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) in Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia. The objective of this study was to compare if the level of compliance to three conditions (approach type, swim time, and time in proximity to dolphins) in the tour operators’ permits changed after state government co...

In the absence of guidelines or government regulation for a rapidly expanding industry, dolphin watching operators in Port Stephens, New South Wales, Australia, formulated and adopted a voluntary code of conduct in 1996. This code was designed to reduce perceived pressures on dolphins and was updated to conform to the Australian National Guidelines for Cetacean Observation when they were releas...

Dolphins are well known for their complex social and foraging behaviours. Direct underwater observations of wild dolphin feeding behaviour however are rare. At mass spawning aggregations of giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama) in the Upper Spencer Gulf in South Australia, a wild female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) was observed and recorded repeatedly catching, killing and prepar...