This series highlights the latest and most exciting marine mammal science published in the Marine Mammal Science Journal. The SMM created this series to give scientists and citizens around the world a chance to engage with marine mammal scientists, learn, and ask questions. All are welcome!
Join us on Thursday, 20 July 2023 at 3pm PDT / 6pm EDT / 10pm GMT
for the next SMM Seminar Editors’ Select Series
Assimilation takes time: integration of two dolphin societies
with Dr. Cindy Elliser
This event is free to attend and presented online via Zoom, but registration is required.
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CevPOor4Q8-BOom0BHG_bA
Space on Zoom is limited to the first 500 attendees. The talk will also be streamed live on the SMM Facebook page.
About this talk:
In the Bahamas live two communities of spotted dolphins separated by deep water: one on Little Bahama Bank (LBB) off of Grand Bahama Island and one on Great Bahama Bank (GBB) off of Bimini. In 2013 an unprecedented 50% of the LBB spotted dolphins moved across the deep water and took up residence on GBB. This type of large-scale immigration is rare. How does such a large group of dolphins move into an established community? This is the story of how these two communities have reacted, how they have integrated and how this is shaping the social structure of this new community.
About the presenter:
Dr. Cindy R. Elliser is the Research Director and Founder of Pacific Mammal Research (PacMam) and Associate Director of the Salish Sea Institute at Western Washington University. She received her B.S. (2000) and M.S. (2003) in Biological Sciences from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and received her Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from FAU in 2010. Her work focuses on photo-identification, behavioral ecology and social structure of marine mammals. For 10 years she worked with Dr. Denise Herzing and the Wild Dolphin Project studying Atlantic spotted and bottlenose dolphins in the Bahamas. In 2014 Dr. Elliser moved to the Pacific Northwest and founded PacMam to study marine mammals in the Salish Sea, particularly harbor porpoises and harbor seals. Dr. Elliser also teaches biology and related courses as an associate professor at Skagit Valley College and Western Washington University.
Open access to this article is made temporarily available in the weeks around the presentation and can be found here. Current SMM members have access to all Marine Mammal Science papers.
Missed a presentation or want to share this series with a friend? All previous Editors’ Select presentations are recorded and archived on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUc78IynQlubS2DVS1VZoplf_t42-yZOO