Dear Marmamers,
we are pleased to announce the publication of the first in a series of papers looking at the potential communicative value of physical behavioural events in Fiordland bottlenose dolphins:
 
R. Ferrer i Cancho and D. Lusseau 2006. Long-term correlations in the surface behavior of dolphins. Europhysics Letters DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2005-10596-9

Abstract
Here we study the sequences of surface behavioral patterns of dolphins (Tursiops sp.) and find long-term correlations. We show that the long-term correlations are not of a trivial nature, i.e. they cannot be explained by the repetition of the same surface behavior many times in a row. Our findings suggest that dolphins have a long collective memory extending back at least to the 7-th past behavior. As far as we know, this is the first evidence of long-term correlations in the behavior of a non-human species.

The paper is available in the E-first section of the Journal (http://www.edpsciences.org/articles/epl/abs/first/contents/contents.html) and will be shortly available at lusseau.org

David

 

 

David Lusseau, PhD
Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dalhousie University
Department of Biology
1355 Oxford Street
Halifax, NS B3H 4J1

Tel: (902) 494 3723
E-mail: d.lusseau@dal.ca
           david.lusseau@gmail.com
Website: http://www.lusseau.org