engleski

Predictability of diurnal movements of common bottlenose dolphins (tursiops truncatus) in coastal waters of Cres-Lošinj archipelago

There is a resident common bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus community inhabiting the waters of the Cres-Lošinj archipelago. This thesis investigates their diurnal movements based on photo-identification data collected during a commercial dolphin watching activities in 2017. There have been 126 sightings with 309 individual common bottlenose dolphins identified. The average number of dolphins per sighting was 6. The basis of this method is that the same individual bottlenose dolphins are regularly resighted within 24 hours. Ninety individuals have been resighted at least once within a 24-hour period during the dolphin-watching season. The average relocation distance was 4.46 km, the average speed 1.76 km/h, and the average distance from land 4.43 km. There was no statistically significant difference in average relocation distance, average speed, and the average distance from the land between before noon (am) and after noon (pm) hours. Results are compared to previous studies of common bottlenose daily movements, and recommendations to possible improvements of the method are discussed.

Tursiops truncatus, speed, distance, daily trends, Adriatic Sea

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