OPUS: Lifetime strategies of wild bottlenose dolphins based on 40 years of research

Georgetown University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Despite considerable public and scientific interest in their large brains, complex communication systems and sociability, the detailed lives of wild dolphins and whales remain virtually unknown. Because cetaceans are so long-lived and difficult to study, no synthetic study on the lives of any wild dolphin or whale species from birth to death has been published. The OPUS award will help change that. The Shark Bay Bottlenose Dolphin Project, based in Western Australia, is the largest comprehensive study of any wild dolphin or whale in the world, including behavioral, demographic, ecological, genetic and physiological data on over 1750 dolphins from birth to death. A team of researchers has examined social behavior, social bonds, networks and structure, kinship, tool-use, foraging ecology, lifetime reproductive success, senescence, disease transmission, human impacts, and responses to extreme climate events. Although there are dozens of long-term studies of wild cetaceans (spanning 10+ years), none have this level of detail about the lives of individual animals. The OPUS project has two major goals: (1) Complete 3 books (for 3 distinct audiences: scholars, the public, children) that synthesize 40 years (1984-2023) of longitudinal study on wild bottlenose dolphins; and (2) Make these data available to the public and scientists from diverse fields, thus accelerating our knowledge and advancing our ability to protect wildlife species in general. The books will synthesize 40 years of research for distinct audiences, but will, in each case, provide insight into the lives of dolphins at the individual and population level. The material will cover the challenges of each life stage (infancy, juvenile period, early and late adulthood), significant topics like tool use and social networks, and the major threats to dolphins (e.g., epidemics, fishing gear entanglement, collapse of food sources, pollution, and extreme climate events). In addition, the OPUS will support integration of image, behavioral, demographic, spatial, and genetic data so that scientists from multiple disciplines can access these datasets. There are few longitudinal databases for any wildlife species that are this comprehensive, with high dimensional complexity, and methodological rigor. The investigator will finalize the relational database (integration of all archival and current data) and create a detailed guide to facilitate access for the next generation of scholars. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.