Dear MARMAM community, We are pleased to share our recent publication in Mammalian Biology:
Mosca, O., Methion, S. & Diaz Lopez, B. (2026) Calling out in the crowd: signature whistle production in bottlenose dolphins. Mammalian Biology https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-025-00556-1 Bottlenose dolphins use signature whistles for individual recognition in fission-fusion societies, but contextual drivers remain unclear. We analyzed 1,119 acoustic samples from 15-year monitoring of two contrasting populations using GLMMs to assess effects of location, behavior, group size, and composition. Signature whistle production rose with group size (steeper increase in populations with smaller groups than those with larger ones), modulated by local ecology. Signature whistles were more common during social behavior than traveling, supporting coordination in dynamic interactions. Overall, this work highlights how the production of signature whistles varies with social structure and environmental setting, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of contextual communication in bottlenose dolphins. If you are interested in reading the full article, it is available here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-025-00556-1 or you can request it by email ([email protected]). Best regards, Bruno Diaz Lopez Ph.D Chief biologist and Director The Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute BDRI - www.thebdri.com Avenida Beiramar 192, O Grove 36980, Pontevedra, Spain Tel. 0034 684248552 he/him/his https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0388-3289 _______________________________________________ MARMAM mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam
