Dolphins too have social networks

New York, May 6: They do not log in to Facebook or Twitter, but dolphins do, in fact, form highly complex and dymic networks of friends, a new research has found. The surveys conducted along the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) over a six and a half year period revealed that individual bottlenose dolphins exhibited both preference and avoidance behaviour - so just like humans, they have dolphins they like and associate with and ones they avoid. “One of the more unique aspects of our study was the discovery that the physical dimensions of the habitat, the long, rrow lagoon system itself, influenced the spatial and temporal dymics of dolphin association patterns,” said Elizabeth Murdoch Titcomb, research biologist at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) at Florida Atlantic University. “For example, communities that occupy the rrowest stretches of the Indian River Lagoon have the most compact social networks, similar to humans who live in small towns and have fewer people with whom to interact,” Titcomb noted. The IRL is a 156-mile long estuary located on Florida’s east coast. The lagoon is long and rrow and composed of three distinct water bodies; Mosquito Lagoon, Ba River, and the Indian River. (IANS)