2010-01-04

WDCS Publishes New Study Of Solitary Dolphin

Members of WDCS’s science team have published the first systematic study of the behaviour of a solitary bottlenose dolphin in the January edition of the American Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science (JAAWS).

The article provides a report of the behaviour of a female solitary sociable dolphin studied on the southeast coast of England in the summer of 2007.

When the dolphin first appeared in April 2006, she did not interact with people. By the time of this study, this young female was highly interactive with people in the water. The article describes 39 different behaviours and how they changed over time with the presence or absence of people in the water with the dolphin and highlights welfare issues surrounding solitary sociable dolphins.

Further details and the abstract of the article can be found if you click here. (Please note that if you wish to read the whole article, you will need to purchase it from the journal.)

Further information on solitary sociable dolphins from WDCS here.