Background
Social interactions are the range of behaviours and communications that occur between two or more individuals within a social group or community. It plays a significant role in information transfer and can influence different factors (i.e., health, survival, reproductive success). It can also change during different life stages due to different factors. These changes can be analysed using social networks.
In my thesis, I am focusing on a population of bottlenose dolphins on the east coast of Scotland. It is the only known resident bottlenose dolphin population of the North Sea and also the most northern resident population.
Aims
The aim is to investigate the change and development of social behaviour with age and sex as well as the similarity between mother and offspring social behaviour.
This will make us gain insights on this specific population of bottlenose dolphins.