Manon Themelin dives into the complexity of dolphin social relationships

Episode 24,   Jun 19, 2023, 04:09 PM

An interview with DCP Research Associate Manon Themelin and DCP Director Dr. Kathleen Dudzinski.  We learn how Manon got started researching dolphins and the exciting discoveries she's made. Manon's research into relationship quality (RQ) shows that the methods we apply to the study of ravens and chimpanzees works just as well for dolphins, albeit with some minor tweaks to accommodate for dolphins' aquatic lifestyle and peculiar ways of socializing. Also, it turns out that the positions dolphin adopt when swimming next to each other and how they navigate each others' slipstreams can tell us a lot about the relationships between individual dolphins.