The Blow Project
Celine Frère, Ewa Krzyszczyk, Janet Mann & Eric Patterson
Dolphins obviously come to the surface to breathe and occasionally they blow hard enough when bow-riding our boats that we get sprayed in the face. We have recently decided to capitalize on this by developing a new non-invasive method, “blow-sampling”, which involves collecting fluid exhaled from the blowhole, and will explore the full potential of this biological sample. Our study population is ideal as we have monitored individual life histories, reproduction, behavior, genetics, and ecology for so many dolphins. In addition, the provisioned dolphins that visit Monkey Mia are an ideal population to test our methods. Thus, we can sample blow daily from the same individuals in different reproductive states, with known relatedness and partially controlled diets, allowing us to ground-truth the method and apply it to our population at large. In a 2008 pilot study we collected 90 blow samples from provisioned and non-provisioned dolphins and extracted mtDNA (maternally inherited) from their blow. In 2009 we partnered with the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland, USA so that we could refine our methods. Here the bottlenose dolphins were trained to blow after a light touch on the melon. We collected their blow and successfully extracted DNA. In addition, we were able to match the DNA profiles to blood samples that the Aquarium collects for routine medical procedures. This work is now in press in PLOS One. Next we hope to identify reproductive state through hormones, diet through fatty acids, health through disease presence, and kinship through mtDNA and nuclear DNA in the Shark Bay dolphins. We can then correlate these measures with age, sex, behavior, reproductive patterns and survival. This innovative and non-invasive project will acquire much-needed data for improving dolphin welfare, and can potentially set a new standard for biological sampling of cetaceans.
Eric Collecting Blow from Nani at the National Aquarium in Balitmore
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POMBOO
Our new research vessel is an ocean whaler named "Pomboo", the Swahili word for dolphin.
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BBC-Discovery Documentary Film out in 2010: Big Wave Productions is producing a film for the BBC Natural World Series tentatively titled "The Dolphins of Shark Bay." This is the first detailed look at an individual dolphin mother, her pregnancy and new calf. Janet Mann, Eric Patterson, Jean Tsai, Ewa Krzyszczyk, Maggie Stanton, Shae Sleater and Vivienne Foroughirad all helped make the film a success. Look for it in October and November of 2010.
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We have made enormous progress in the development of our new database. Dr. Lisa Singh (Computer Science, Georgetown University) and her collaborators have helped create a data warehouse that will greatly facilitate analyses and education projects for many years to come. We now have 26 years of dolphin surveys loaded into the database and basic life history information has been integrated. Many types of data are being added each month. We will soon have interactive features on the website that are linked to the database so that anyone, but children especially, can search for information about a specific dolphin.
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Frère, C.H., Krzyszczyk, E., Patterson E.M., Hunter, S., Ginsburg, A., Mann, J. 2010. Thar she blows! A novel method for DNA collection from cetacean blow.
PloS ONE.
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Frère, C., Krützen M., Kopps, A., Ward, P., Mann, J., Sherwin, W.B. 2010. Inbreeding Tolerance and Fitness Costs in Wild Bottlenose Dolphins.
Proceedings of the Royal Society-B. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2010.0039
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Frère, C., Krützen, M., Mann, J. Watson-Capps, J.J. Patterson, E. M., Tsai, Y.J., Connor, R., Bejder, L., Sherwin, W.B. 2010. Home range overlap, matrilineal and biparental kinship drive female associations in bottlenose dolphins.
Animal Behaviour. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.06.007
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Sargeant, B.L. and Mann, J. 2009. From social learning to culture: Intrapopulation variation in bottlenose dolphins. In B.G. Galef Jr. and K. N. Laland (Eds.)
The Question of Animal Culture. Harvard University Press. Ch. 7, Pp 152-173.
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Sargeant, B.L & Mann, J. 2009. Developmental evidence for foraging traditions in wild bottlenose dolphins.
Animal Behaviour, 78:715-721.
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Sharara H. Singh L., Getoor L., Mann, J. 2009. The Dynamics of Actor Loyalty to Groups in Affiliation Networks. International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, JUL 20-22, 2009 Athens, Greece: pp. 101-106.
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Gibson, Q.A. & Mann, J. 2009. Do sampling method and sample size affect basic measures of dolphin sociality?
Marine Mammal Science. 25:187-198.
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In addition to those listed above, there are several publications that are in press (see publications) or have
been submitted.
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In addition to 16 new publications, we have been presenting our work at numerous conferences. These presentations focused on sexual maturation and speckling in dolphins (see grad student E. Krzyszczyk’s work below), more on sponge tool use including the social networks of spongers (Mann et al. 2010), several papers (led by graduate student Maggie Stanton) focused on social networks of mothers and calves and on how sampling method affects social network metrics. Other papers focused on home range sampling methods (Patterson et al. 2009) and on sex differences in home ranges for calves and juveniles (Tsai et al. 2009). Several other new projects are listed below.
Conference Presentations 2009-2010:
1. Krzyszczyk, E., & Mann, J. 2010. Using speckling rates of known aged Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops sp. in Shark Bay, Australia as a model to age others in the population. 13th International Behavioural Ecology Congress, Perth, Australia, Sept 25-Oct 1.
2. Mann, J., Foroughirad, V., Krzyszczyk, E., Tsai, Y.J. 2010. Female-Biased Investment in Wild Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops sp.), Shark Bay, Australia. 13th International Behavioural Ecology Congress, Perth, Australia, Sept 25-Oct 1.
3. Stanton, M., Gibson, Q.A., Mann, J. 2010. Bottlenose dolphin mother and calf ego networks during separations. Animal Behavior Society, Williamsburg, VA July 25-31.
4. Mann, J., Sargeant, B.L., Patterson, E.M. 2010. Sex-Bias and Ontogeny of Sponge Tool-Use in Wild Bottlenose Dolphins, Animal Behavior Society, Williamsburg, VA July 25-31.
5. Stanton, M.A., Gibson, Q.A., Mann, J. 2010. When mum’s away: A comparison of bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops sp.) mother and calf ego networks during separations in Shark Bay, Australia. Southeast and Mid-Atlantic Marine Mammal Symposium (SEAMAMMS), Virginia Beach, March 2010.
6. Stanton, M.A., Mann, J. Bienenstock, E.J., Gibson, Q.A., Sargeant, B.L., Bejder, L. & Singh, L.O. 2010. Snapshot or movie: How sampling methods bias dolphin social network metrics. International Network for Social Network Analysis, Sunbelt Conference, Trento Italy, June-July.
7. Bienenstock, E., Stanton, M.A., & Mann, J. Sex, dominance and quasi-symmetry in wild bottlenose dolphins. International Network for Social Network Analysis, Sunbelt Conference, Trento Italy, June-July
8. Mann, J., Patterson, E., Bienenstock, E.J., Sargeant, B.L., Stanton, M.A., Krzyszczyk, E B., Gibson, Q.A., Tsai, Y.J. , Singh, L.O. 2010. Is dolphin sponging a culture? A Social Network Approach. International Network for Social Network Analysis, Sunbelt Conference, Trento Italy, June-July.
9. Bacher, K., Smith, H., Krzyszczyk, E., Mann, J., Kopps, A. M. 2010. What makes a dolphin turn vegetarian? 24th Conference of the European Cetacean Society, Stralsund, Germany, March.
10. Krzyszczyk. E., Mann, J. & Samuels, A. 2009. Using speckling rates of known-aged Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops sp. in Shark Bay, Australia as a model to age others in the population. 18th Bienniel Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, Quebec City, Canada, October.
11. Mann, J., Krzyszczyk. E., Tsai, Y.J., Connor, R.C., Barre, L.M. 2009. Mother Knows Breast: Support for the Advantaged Matriline Hypothesis in Wild Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops sp.). 18th Bienniel Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, Quebec City, Canada, October.
12. Stanton, M., Mann, J., Gibson, Q.A., Sargeant, B.L., Bejder, L., & Singh, L. 2009. How much does method matter? A comparison of social networks of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) in Shark Bay, Australia. 18th Bienniel Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, Quebec City, Canada, October.
13. Patterson, E.M., Tsai, Y.J., Watson-Capps, J.J., Bejder, L. Mann, J. 2009. The effect of sampling effort on three methods of estimating home range size for bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) in Shark Bay, Western Australia. 18th Bienniel Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, Quebec City, Canada, October.
14. Tsai, Y.J., Patterson, E.M., Watson-Capps, J.J., Bejder, L. Mann, J. 2009. Sex differences in home range pre- and post-weaning among Shark Bay bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) 18th Bienniel Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, Quebec City, Canada, October.
15. Shararam, H., Singh, L., Getoor, L., and Mann, J. 2009. The evolution of groups in affiliation networks. International Conference on Advances in Social Network Analysis and Mining. Athens, Greece, July.
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