Behavioral ecology usage patterns such as site fidelity, residency, and distribution are known to be reliant on ecological factors (Campbell, Bilgre, & Defran, 2002). The ways in which ecological factors affect such usage patterns are based on the ratio of costs, like competition for food or other resources, to benefits, like protection from predators, and this ratio as a whole is greatly affected by the predictability of resources in the area both temporally and spatially (Lusseau et al., 2004; McHugh, Allen, Barleycorn, & Wells, 2011; Wells & Scott, 2002). On a large spatial scale, the distribution of many large marine apex predators, such as dolphins from the family Delphinidae, is highly dependent on large-scale physical environmental
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The distribution of bottlenose dolphins is cosmopolitan over temperate and tropical waters, and is variable based on stock or ecotype (Shane, 2004; Zolman, 2002). All three ecotypes described earlier have been documented in bottlenose dolphins, with bottlenose dolphin inshore and coastal ecotypes sometimes documented adjacent to each other (Nichols et al., 2007; Shane, 2004; Zolman, 2002). Offshore bottlenose dolphins that inhabit pelagic, open waters where temperature is low and depth is steep are largely migratory and have large group sizes, similar to others of the family Delphinidae (Rossbach and Herzing, 1999). Site fidelity also emerges as a common characteristic for bottlenose dolphins inhabiting coastal, shallow, and protected waters. This has been well documented in the two longest running studies of bottlenose dolphins, one being on the Sarasota Atlantic, or common, bottlenose dolphin (T. tursiops) community (e.g., Scott, Wells, & Irvine, 1990; Wells & Scott, 1990; Wells et al., 1987;) and the other being on the Shark Bay Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (T. aduncus) community (e.g., Connor & Smolker, 1985; Connor et al., 2000; Smolker, Richards, Connor, & Pepper, 1992). Both bottlenose dolphin communities live in coastal, shallow, and protected
The distribution of bottlenose dolphins is cosmopolitan over temperate and tropical waters, and is variable based on stock or ecotype (Shane, 2004; Zolman, 2002). All three ecotypes described earlier have been documented in bottlenose dolphins, with bottlenose dolphin inshore and coastal ecotypes sometimes documented adjacent to each other (Nichols et al., 2007; Shane, 2004; Zolman, 2002). Offshore bottlenose dolphins that inhabit pelagic, open waters where temperature is low and depth is steep are largely migratory and have large group sizes, similar to others of the family Delphinidae (Rossbach and Herzing, 1999). Site fidelity also emerges as a common characteristic for bottlenose dolphins inhabiting coastal, shallow, and protected waters. This has been well documented in the two longest running studies of bottlenose dolphins, one being on the Sarasota Atlantic, or common, bottlenose dolphin (T. tursiops) community (e.g., Scott, Wells, & Irvine, 1990; Wells & Scott, 1990; Wells et al., 1987;) and the other being on the Shark Bay Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (T. aduncus) community (e.g., Connor & Smolker, 1985; Connor et al., 2000; Smolker, Richards, Connor, & Pepper, 1992). Both bottlenose dolphin communities live in coastal, shallow, and protected