CEBEL

🎓 Congratulations to Riley West-Thompson on the successful presentation and submission of his Honours thesis, “Begging for trouble? Persistent begging is associated with changes in space use, behaviour, and social connectivity of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in Whyalla, South Australia.”

Riley's research investigated the ecological and behavioural consequences of dolphin begging behaviour and provides valuable insights to support the conservation and management of this SA dolphin population.

A big thank you to the South Australian Department for Environment and Water for funding and supporting this important research.

🐬 Research Highlights

• Estimated population size of approximately 60 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in Whyalla, South Australia.
• Ten individuals were identified as persistent beggars, repeatedly seeking food handouts.
• Begging dolphins showed a 90% smaller core home range than non-beggars, centred around the Whyalla Marina.
• Beggars associated more frequently with other beggars, suggesting changes in social connectivity.
• Dolphins engaging in begging had more than twice as many skin lesions as non-beggars.
• Groups containing more beggars were more likely to exhibit milling behaviour, indicating altered activity patterns.
• Findings demonstrate that begging and food provisioning is associated with changes in space use, behaviour, health, and social relationships in wild dolphins.

This Honours project provides important evidence to support management actions aimed at reducing the impacts of food provisioning on wild dolphin populations.

Excited to share our new paper published in Molecular Ecology exploring the evolutionary history and adaptive divergence of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) across Australian coastal waters.

A huge congratulations to lead author Svenja Marfurt and all co-authors and collaborators involved in this fantastic collaborative effort.

Using whole-genome sequencing from dolphins sampled across tropical, subtropical and temperate regions around Australia, we found that:

🐬 Population structure closely mirrors the Australian coastline, revealing distinct east, west and South Australian lineages.

🌏 Demographic analyses suggest a northern origin followed by independent north-to-south colonisation pathways along both coasts.

🧬 Putatively adaptive genomic regions showed strong tropical–temperate differentiation, suggesting parallel adaptation to similar environmental conditions despite large geographic separation.

🌡️ Temperature emerged as a major driver of adaptive divergence, highlighting how environmental gradients shape evolutionary processes in coastal marine predators.

🌊 The findings also suggest the potential presence of ecotype-like structuring across Australian waters, with important implications for conservation under accelerating climate change.

This study highlights the importance of integrating adaptive genomic variation, not just neutral population structure, into marine conservation planning.

Read all about it here: https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70383

Join Flinders University marine researchers at this year’s Winter Whale Fest in Victor Harbor for talks on Adelaide dolphins, South Australian snapper, and Victor Harbor’s shifting shores. 🐬🐟🌊

Saturday 6 June, 11:30 am–12:30 pm, SA Whale Centre, Victor Harbor. Bookings are essential via the link below.

Dolphins, Snapper & Shifting Shores – Flinders University — Winter Whale Fest, Victor Harbor Celebrate the remarkable marine life of the Fleurieu and Adelaide Coast and explore the inspiring work of Flinders University marine researchers. Discover how science is helping protect dolphins and other marine wildlife, support the recovery of snapper stocks, and improve our understanding of wave

A huge congratulations to our Honours student Abbey for successfully presenting her Honours research seminar: “Nurseries Near the City: Identifying Mother–Calf Hotspots of Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) off the Adelaide Metropolitan Coast, South Australia.” 🎉🐬

Abbey’s research explored how mother–calf groups of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins use coastal habitats along one of Australia’s most urbanised coastlines, helping identify important nursery areas and the environmental factors associated with their occurrence. Her work provides valuable baseline information to support the conservation and management of this near-threatened population.

Well done Abbey on all your hard work and an excellent seminar presentation, an exciting contribution to our understanding of dolphin ecology and conservation in South Australia! 👏🌊

A special thank you to Temptation Sailing for their ongoing help and support throughout this project, and for providing an invaluable platform to help advance marine mammal research along the Adelaide coast.

🐬✨ How close do dolphins need to be to count as a group?

Defining what counts as an animal “group” might sound simple, but for highly mobile species such as dolphins it has long been surprisingly difficult and often subjective. Dolphins are constantly moving, joining, and leaving groups, making their social boundaries incredibly fluid.

In new research led by PhD student Anna Christie from the Cetacean Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab (CEBEL), we used drones, machine learning, and spatial analysis to measure how close Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins stay to one another in the wild.

🐬📏 By analysing thousands of distance measurements between dolphins in Coffin Bay, South Australia, the study identified objective spatial thresholds that help define dolphin group membership:

📏 ~18 m nearest-neighbour distance
📏 ~24 m inter-individual distance

The research also showed that dolphin spacing changes dynamically with:

🔹 Sighting size (number of individuals)
🔹 Age composition (presence of calves and juveniles)
🔹 Behavioural state (foraging, travelling, socialising, resting)

For example, dolphins spread further apart while feeding, but stay much closer together during social interactions.

Importantly, this provides one of the first objective, data-driven ways to define dolphin groups, an approach that could also help scientists study other social animals where group boundaries are difficult to see directly.

Congratulations to Anna Christie and co-authors Andrew Colefax, Charlie White, and Guido J. Parra on this publication in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology! 👏

Read and share here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-026-03743-3

🐬 Can orphaned dolphin calves survive on their own?

A new study led by PhD student Cristina Vicente-Sánchez from our CEBEL team documents two extraordinary cases of young Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins that survived the loss of their mothers at just 7–10 months old, far earlier than expected.

In species like dolphins, maternal care is everything: protection, nutrition, and learning how to survive. Losing a mother this early is usually considered a death sentence.

Yet… these two calves defied the odds.

✨ One survived to adulthood and even gave birth 14 years later
✨ The other survived for years despite poor health , but tragically died from a boat strike

These rare cases challenge long-held assumptions and raise important questions for conservation and management.

👉 Should orphaned calves always be euthanised?
👉 Or can some survive — given the right conditions?

This research highlights both the resilience of wildlife and the risks they face in human-dominated environments.

📖 Read the full paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mms.70182

🌍🐋 One whale is worth a thousand trees.

This Earth Day, let’s talk about one of the ocean’s most powerful climate allies: whales.

Whales don’t just inspire awe - they help fight climate change. Through a process known as the “whale pump,” they circulate nutrients throughout the ocean, fueling phytoplankton growth. These microscopic ocean plants absorb massive amounts of CO₂ and produce much of the oxygen we breathe.

In fact, phytoplankton capture around 40% of global CO₂ emissions - and whales help keep this system thriving. More whales = more carbon captured.

Scientists estimate that a single whale can have the climate impact of thousands of trees. That’s not just poetic - it’s science.

Protecting whales isn’t just about saving a species. It’s about protecting our planet.

🌊 This Earth Day, let’s protect the giants that protect us.

🦈🐬 When top predators collide…

Sharks and dolphins are iconic ocean predators, yet their interactions are rarely considered in conservation planning.

📈 Our new research led by Jerry Moxley shows that human activity has quietly reshaped predator–prey relationships in the sea, reducing shark predation risk for estuarine and coastal dolphins in many regions. As countries invest in shark recovery and fisheries reform, these dynamics may change again, with cascading effects for marine ecosystems.

💡 Understanding how top predators interact helps explain why ecosystems behave the way they do, and why restoring one species can have unexpected consequences for others.

📄 Read the paper here: https://www.int-res.com/journals/meps/articles/meps15096

👥 Huge thanks to all collaborators and contributors to this global synthesis!

🎉🐬 PhD submitted: dolphins studied, drones flown, legend confirmed! 🚀

Delighted to share that Charlie White has submitted her PhD thesis 👏

🛸🎮🐬Her research advances the use of drone-based approaches to monitor dolphin vital signs, behaviour, and movement, delivering innovative, non-invasive methods that strengthen our capacity to study and assess marine mammal populations. This work represents a meaningful contribution to both ecological research and conservation practice, particularly in the application of emerging technologies to wildlife monitoring.

This thesis reflects years of rigorous work, creativity, and persistence, and stands as an excellent example of how integrative approaches can push the field forward.

Looking forward to seeing the next steps and impact of this work🐬🚀.