Ethogram of Two Captive Mother-Calf Dyads of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus): Comparison with Field Ethograms

摘要

The first and strongest bond bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) encounter during their lives is the mother-calf-relationship (Wells, 1991). The calves are generally nursed for 3 to 6 y (Mann & Smuts, 1999) and associate strongly with their mothers for the first few years (Wells et al., 1987; Smolker et al., 1992). In the last decades, the study of bottlenose dolphin mother-calf behaviour concentrated on quantitative aspects of suckling behaviour (Eastcott & Dickinson, 1987; Cockcroft & Ross, 1990; Peddemors et al., 1992; Reid et al., 1995; Triossi et al., 1998; Mello et al., 2005) and spatial relations (Reid et al., 1995; Gubbins et al., 1999; Mann & Smuts, 1999). Detailed field ethograms were presented by Mann & Smuts (1999) for wild bottlenose dolphin mother-calf dyads in the calves?first 10 wks and by Miles & Herzing (2003) for wild Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis) mother-calf dyads. In the present study, the first detailed ethogram of captive mother-calf dyads was established. Fifty-one behavioural patterns of two bottlenose dolphin mothercalf dyads in the calves?first year were defined. The ethogram comprised aspects of suckling behaviour, swimming positions, mother-calf interactions, solitary behaviour, and play behaviour and contributes to a better understanding of the diversity of bottlenose dolphin mother-calf behaviour.