Personality and affiliation involving a cooperative task in bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus) Dyads

Cooperation may be related to personality in bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) dyads. Five bottlenose dolphin pairs at the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences (RIMS), Honduras, were presented with an apparatus released a food reward if opened cooperatively. I created personality profiles of each dolphin with traits grouped in two different contexts: dolphin-dolphin and dolphin-world. I hypothesized that success of the cooperative task would be related to similarities in socialization and dissimilar in interacting with objects. None of the dolphin pairs cooperated to open the apparatus. I then analyzed individual personalities in relation to the dolphins’ individual and mutual interactions with the apparatus as well as the pairs’ social behaviors. Playfulness, curiosity, and affiliativeness as well as the factors openness, agreeableness, and extraversion were positively related to affiliation with the apparatus and each other. My findings could guide future animal research on the relationship between personality, social interactions, and problem-solving.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Bagley, Kimberly

Contributors dc:contributor

• Foerder, Preston G.
• Warren, Amye; Roges, Katherine; Winship, Kelley
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Bottlenose dolphin -- Behavior
• Bottlenose dolphin -- Psychology
• Learning in animals
• Social behavior in animals

Licence

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/557

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1710