Demographic History and Adaptive Evolution of Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in Western Australia.

Demographic processes can substantially affect a species' response to changing ecological conditions, necessitating the combined consideration of genetic responses to environmental variables and neutral genetic variation. Using a seascape genomics approach combined with population demographic modelling, we explored the interplay of demographic and environmental factors that shaped the current population structure in Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) along the Western Australian coastline. We combined large-scale environmental data gathered via remote sensing with RADseq genomic data from 133 individuals at 19 sampling sites.

Association patterns and community structure among female bottlenose dolphins: environmental, genetic and cultural factors.

Unlabelled: Social structuring from assortative associations may affect individual fitness, as well as population-level processes. Gaining a broader understanding of social structure can improve our knowledge of social evolution and inform wildlife conservation. We investigated association patterns and community structure of female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins () in Shark Bay, Western Australia, assessing the role of kinship, shared culturally transmitted foraging techniques, and habitat similarity based on water depth.

Affiliation history and age similarity predict alliance formation in adult male bottlenose dolphins.

Male alliances are an intriguing phenomenon in the context of reproduction since, in most taxa, males compete over an indivisible resource, female fertilization. Adult male bottlenose dolphins () in Shark Bay, Western Australia, form long-term, multilevel alliances to sequester estrus females. These alliances are therefore critical to male reproductive success.