Dear colleagues,

My co-authors and I are pleased to announce the publication of a new paper:

Orbach DN, Packard JM, Kirchner T, and Würsig, B. 2015. Evasive behaviours of female dusky dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obscurus) during exploitative scramble competition. Behaviour doi: 10.1163/1568539X-00003310

ABSTRACT

When males engage in scramble competition, are females non-evasive recipients of male coercion or evasive? Small groups of male dusky dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obscurus) engage in exploitative (non-interference) scramble competition for access to oestrous females near Kaikoura, New Zealand. We conducted behavioural sequence analyses of videos of 48 mating groups with continuous records and focal individual follows of females. We determined (1) the frequency and type of behaviours (non-evasive vs. evasive), (2) the variation in simple transition probabilities of behaviours leading to a copulatory position associated with female resistance and non-resistance and (3) the variation in female responses to male behaviours throughout focal follows. Females exhibited frequent active evasive manoeuvers following male behaviours. Copulation sequences were highly variable and most complex when terminated by females. Females altered responses to male signals, one aspect of mate choice potentially favouring male endurance.

A PDF version of the paper is available online at: 

http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/1568539x-00003310;jsessionid=3dqchqqj0fu0g.x-brill-live-02

or via e-mail request to dnorbach@gmail.com

Cheers,

Dara Orbach

Ph.D. candidate
Marine Mammal Behavioral Ecology Group
Department of Marine Biology- IDP
Texas A&M University at Galveston
http://www.tamug.edu/mmbeg