Dear colleagues, My co-authors and I are sharing here our new paper "Dynamics of short‑finned pilot whales long‑term social structure in Madeira."
Esteban, R. Verborgh, P., Freitas, L. Dynamics of short‑finned pilot whales long‑term social structurein Madeira. Mamm Biol (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-022-00280-0 <https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-022-00266-y> Abstract: The associations of social individuals are normally represented by a social network, which is a static representation of dynamic relationships, generally influenced by spatio-temporal, demographic, environmental and kinship drivers. We examined the social structure of core resident short-finned pilot whales off Madeira, an archipelago in the Northeast Atlantic, delineating their spatial overlapping, temporal evolution, demographic process and site fidelity, between two sub-periods (1997–2013 and 2014–2019). Decades of individual photo-identification work showed that social clusters were formed by preferred companions. The results indicate that this short-finned pilot whale community consists of social clusters, with most individuals showing long-term stability of cluster membership. However, clusters can be also subject to dynamic changes, and sometime split up into two which may be due to an increase in the number of individuals in the original cluster and, consequently, challenges to maintaining associations among individuals in large groups. In general, the probability of associations among core resident individuals within a cluster decreased with time (decreased by half in 18–54 years), which was related to demographic events. All clusters showed highly overlapping distribution areas, suggesting that their social structure is not driven by spatial factors but likely social preferences. You can access the full text on https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-022-00280-0 <https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-022-00266-y> ; read it online on https://rdcu.be/cVKHY ; through researchgate (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ruth-Esteban) or be email to me (rutheste...@museudabaleia.org). All the best, Ruth Esteban Ruth Esteban Bióloga Marinha - Marine Biologist <http://www.museudabaleia.org/> Siga-nos em / follow us at: <https://www.facebook.com/museu.baleia.madeira/> <https://www.instagram.com/museudabaleia/?hl=pt>
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