Dear MARMAM colleagues,
Some weeks ago my colleague Elisa Remonato and I posted on MARMAM a
request to gather information about the head-standing behaviour
displayed by Risso's dolphins (/Grampus griseus/).
Your reply was amazing!
We already received 20 questionnaire and 7 more will be send in the next
days.
Thank you so much!
Many of you also asked if we had a video with the head-standing behaviour.
So my colleague and friend Valenatina Cucchiara (www.liquidjungle.tv)
edited some material collected in the southern Egyptian Red Sea in
summer 2012.
Please, find here the link to the video:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fc2qlhifat38o3y/Risso%27s%20tail%20with%20gopro.mp4
We want to thank you again for the incredible participation and support
demonstrated!
My dearest wishes,
Marina Costa
On 11/04/2014 15:43, Marina Costa wrote:
Dear MARMAM colleagues,
Over the years the peculiar head-standing behaviour often displayed by
Risso's dolphins (/Grampus griseus/) has caught the interest of
researchers and members of the public who have witnessed it. This
behaviour consists of the animal standing for a period of time
(varying from a few seconds to several minutes) in a vertical position
with the head underwater (~ 1/3 of the body length) and the tail out
of the water (~ 2/3 of the body length). With very few exceptions
there is almost no information available in the literature on this
behaviour other than the reporting of its existence.
Various hypotheses have been suggested to try to explain the
behaviour, including reaction to distress (either natural or human
related), communication, resting, thermoregulation, etc. but no
specific study has been carried out.
We are currently collecting information about the presence/absence and
frequency of the head-standing behaviour in Risso's dolphins in
different areas of the world and would like to gather as much
information as possible from far and wide.
On behalf of my co-authors and myself, I hereby wish to ask the MARMAM
community to contribute to this research by completing a simple
questionnaire which we have prepared. The only requirement to
contribute is that Risso's dolphins are encountered (with ANY
frequency) during your activity at sea (e.g. whale-watching, land
survey, etc.). The presence of the head-standing behaviour is NOT a
requirement -- to the contrary, we are very interested to find out
whether only certain populations display the behaviour.
As we cannot attach the questionnaire to this MARMAM email, if you are
interested in participating please do not hesitate to contact us
(Marina Costa: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>, Elisa Remonato: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>)and request the questionnaire along with
which we will also provide the terms of the collaboration.
Many thanks in advance for your help and interest!
We will keep the MARMAM community posted about any news and
development of this project.
My dearest wishes
Marina Costa
--
Marina Costa
PhD Student
Sea Mammal Research Unit
Scottish Oceans Institute
University of St Andrews
St Andrews
KY16 8LB
Scotland
[email protected]
[email protected]
Skype: costa_marina
--
Marina Costa
PhD Student
Sea Mammal Research Unit
Scottish Oceans Institute
University of St Andrews
St Andrews
KY16 8LB
Scotland
[email protected]
[email protected]
Skype: costa_marina
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