A killer whale social network is vulnerable to targeted removals
Individuals play various roles in maintaining social integrity of mammalian populations. However, many models developed for managing wildlife resources assume that all individuals are equal. Killer whales are social animals that rely on relationships within and among family groups for survival. In t...
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Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1834010 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17148272 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2006.0510 |
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:1834010 2023-05-15T17:03:27+02:00 A killer whale social network is vulnerable to targeted removals Williams, Rob Lusseau, David 2006-06-29 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1834010 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17148272 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2006.0510 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1834010 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17148272 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2006.0510 © 2006 The Royal Society Research Article Text 2006 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2006.0510 2013-08-31T19:15:11Z Individuals play various roles in maintaining social integrity of mammalian populations. However, many models developed for managing wildlife resources assume that all individuals are equal. Killer whales are social animals that rely on relationships within and among family groups for survival. In the northeastern Pacific, fish-eating, ‘resident’ killer whale populations are composed of matrilines from which offspring do not disperse. We analysed the influence of various individuals' age, sex and matrilineal affiliation on their position in a social network. Here, we show that some matrilines appeared to play more central roles than others in the network. Furthermore, juvenile whales, especially females, appeared to play a central role in maintaining network cohesion. These two key findings were supported subsequently by simulating removal of different individuals. The network was robust to random removals; however, simulations that mimicked historic live-captures from the northeastern Pacific were likely to break the network graph into isolated groups. This finding raises concern regarding targeted takes, such as live-capture or drive fisheries, of matrilineal cetaceans. Text Killer Whale Killer whale PubMed Central (PMC) Pacific Biology Letters 2 4 497 500 |
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Research Article Williams, Rob Lusseau, David A killer whale social network is vulnerable to targeted removals |
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Research Article |
description |
Individuals play various roles in maintaining social integrity of mammalian populations. However, many models developed for managing wildlife resources assume that all individuals are equal. Killer whales are social animals that rely on relationships within and among family groups for survival. In the northeastern Pacific, fish-eating, ‘resident’ killer whale populations are composed of matrilines from which offspring do not disperse. We analysed the influence of various individuals' age, sex and matrilineal affiliation on their position in a social network. Here, we show that some matrilines appeared to play more central roles than others in the network. Furthermore, juvenile whales, especially females, appeared to play a central role in maintaining network cohesion. These two key findings were supported subsequently by simulating removal of different individuals. The network was robust to random removals; however, simulations that mimicked historic live-captures from the northeastern Pacific were likely to break the network graph into isolated groups. This finding raises concern regarding targeted takes, such as live-capture or drive fisheries, of matrilineal cetaceans. |
format |
Text |
author |
Williams, Rob Lusseau, David |
author_facet |
Williams, Rob Lusseau, David |
author_sort |
Williams, Rob |
title |
A killer whale social network is vulnerable to targeted removals |
title_short |
A killer whale social network is vulnerable to targeted removals |
title_full |
A killer whale social network is vulnerable to targeted removals |
title_fullStr |
A killer whale social network is vulnerable to targeted removals |
title_full_unstemmed |
A killer whale social network is vulnerable to targeted removals |
title_sort |
killer whale social network is vulnerable to targeted removals |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2006 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1834010 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17148272 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2006.0510 |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
Killer Whale Killer whale |
genre_facet |
Killer Whale Killer whale |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1834010 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17148272 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2006.0510 |
op_rights |
© 2006 The Royal Society |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2006.0510 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
2 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
497 |
op_container_end_page |
500 |
_version_ |
1766057326935015424 |