Complex Fission-Fusion Social Systems

Though humans and dolphins share intrinsically complex fission-fusion social systems, the scientific studies on their social networks differ. This is because researchers have a different focus when conducting their studies. For humans, researchers are focused on clinical outcomes: lower rates of morbidity and lower rates of mortality involving cardiovascular disease. For dolphins, researchers are focused on the reproduction and survival outcomes. Margaret A. Stanton and Janet Mann, both from the Department of Biology at Georgetown University, conducted a study on the bottlenose dolphin. They investigated the association between dolphin’s early network structure and juvenile survival. Stanton and Mann concentrated on a “direct fitness outcome” on the networks of 67 bottlenose dolphin calves by investigating if any of the social network metrics (binary degree, strength, weighted betweenness, eigenvector …show more content…
In this scenario, only three dolphins were displaced. However, what about the countless other “swim with dolphin” companies all over the Caribbean and elsewhere. So not only do ecosystem changes happen, but the actually dolphins themselves change as well. In this case, the only interactions the captive dolphins have are with each other. To go back to the summary of the research article, one of the conclusions that Stanton and Mann made was that “…social bonds and social capital are beneficial for social mammals; particularly regarding lower levels of stress hormones, which may in turn influence immune response” (pg. 3). In addition, the forced interactions with humans on a daily basis actually has negative effects on dolphins. However, if a dolphin were to encounter a human in the sea and approached the human on its own, then that is fine. The point is: if humans didn’t transport dolphins for their own financial gains, dolphins wouldn’t have the problem of unsustainable