Daylight occurrence of humpback dolphins Sousa chinensis in Algoa Bay, South Africa

This paper describes the pattern of daylight occurrence of humpback dolphins Sousa chinensis in Algoa Bay, the Eastern Cape, South Africa, between May 1991 and May 1994. Two indices, the Sighting Index (SI) and the Total Recorded Dolphin Presence (TRDP), were used to quantify the dolphins' dayl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:African journal of ecology 2000-03, Vol.38 (1), p.86-90
Main Authors: Karczmarski, Leszek, Thornton, Meredith, Cockcroft, Victor G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algoa
dolphin
Sousa chinensis
South Africa
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Summary:This paper describes the pattern of daylight occurrence of humpback dolphins Sousa chinensis in Algoa Bay, the Eastern Cape, South Africa, between May 1991 and May 1994. Two indices, the Sighting Index (SI) and the Total Recorded Dolphin Presence (TRDP), were used to quantify the dolphins' daylight occurrence. Humpback dolphins display a clear pattern of daylight occurrence in Algoa Bay and can be seen mostly in the morning, and, to a lesser extent, in the evening. This pattern varies little between seasons (with possible exception for the evening hours), follows the time of the solar day, is not related to the tidal cycle and is probably governed by the diurnal cycles of dolphins' prey.
ISSN:0141-6707
1365-2028
DOI:10.1046/j.1365-2028.2000.00215.x