Michela Bellingeri

• Fondazione Acquario di Genova, Italy

The common bottlenose dolphin is a cosmopolitan species that can be found worldwide in all oceans except polar and sub-polar waters. This wide distribution is associated with a certain level of morphological variation, which seems consistent with the presence of a globally distributed pelagic/offshore ecotype and several coastal/inshore ecotypes di...

We investigated the presence and diversity of cetaceans in the Mediterranean Sea, analysing the data collected by 32 different research units, over a period of 15 years (2004–2018), and shared on the common web-GIS platform named Intercet. We used the encounter rate, the species prevalence, and the Shannon diversity index as parameters for data ana...

The common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is a cosmopolitan delphinid, regularly present in the Mediterranean Sea. According to previous studies, this dolphin tends to form resident geographical units scattered on the continental shelf. We investigated how the physiographic characteristics of the area of residence, with special reference t...

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) make extensive use of narrowband whistles with individually distinctive frequency modulations to broadcast their identity: the signature whistles. The acoustic structure of the signature whistles tends to be stable over decades. Therefore, these vocalisations have the potential to be used for monitoring indi...

• Geospatial models are used to predict the distribution of terrestrial and marine species, according to their ecological and ethological habits. The bottlenose dolphin is a cosmopolitan marine top predator, inhabiting most of the ocean, with the exception of polar and subpolar waters. This wide distribution is associated with a remarkable plastici...

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) make extensive use of narrowband whistles for intraspecific communication. Among the whistle types, each individual develops an individually distinctive frequency modulation pattern that broadcasts its identity: the signature whistle. In our study, we investigated the acoustic structure of the signature whi...

The reproductive histories of 41 adult bottlenose dolphin females were analysed using photo-identification data collected between 2006 and 2014 in four sub-areas of the eastern Ligurian Sea (northwest Mediterranean). The Rapallo sub-area revealed the highest (highly significant) frequency of encounters (per unit effort) of reproductive females in a...

The bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus Montagu, 1821) is a regularly observed species in the Mediterranean Sea, but its network organization has never been investigated on a large scale. We described the network macrostructure of the bottlenose dolphin (meta)population inhabiting the Pelagos Sanctuary (a wide protected area located in the north...

Habitat modeling is an important tool to investigate the quality of the habitat for a species within a certain area, to predict species distribution and to understand the ecological processes behind it. Many species have been investigated by means of habitat modeling techniques mainly to address effective management and protection policies and ceta...

Modelling approach is a relatively new tool to investigate bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus, Montagu 1821) preferences for its habitat and few studies were focused to Mediterranean populations. While dolphins’ habitat preferences may be primarily influenced by the distribution of their prey, several studies suggested the possibility of defini...

The Pelagos Sanctuary is the largest marine protected area of the Mediterranean Sea (87 500 km2), and is located in the north-west part of the basin. The presence of the bottlenose dolphin in this area is well documented but its distribution and abundance are not well known.The present study collected and analysed data from 10 different research gr...

Delfini Metropolitani is a long term project to study the ecology of bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus, Montagu 1821, Delphinidae) in the Eastern Ligurian Sea. One of the main goal is to analyse the relationships between animals and anthropic activities. The area considered for this study includes the coastal waters between Genoa and La Spezia...

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Introduzione – Il Delfinide Tursiops truncatus (Montagu, 1821) è noto come specie cosmopolita dalle abitudini prevalentemente costiere (Cagnolaro et al., 1983; Notarbartolo di Sciara e Demma, 1994). Alcuni autori indicano l'esistenza di due ecotipi distinti, uno con abitudini propriamente costiere ed uno pelagico (Duffield et al., 1983). L'habitat...

the spatial behaviour of Tursiops truncatus (Cetacea, odontoceti, Delphinidae) along the Ligurian sea coast was analysed by means of photo-identification techniques. photographic catalogues from 4 contiguous research areas (imperia-Alassio, Genova, spezia, Viareggio) were compared. individual dolphins were re-sighted at sites up to 130 km apart.

AIM – This study investigates the association patterns between individuals and the social habits of the bottlenose dolphin in the Eastern Ligurian Sea.

INTRODUCTION – Photo-identification technique has been successfully used with different cetacean species in order to assess population parameters such as abundance, spatial behaviour and social relationships. Despite striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) is the most common cetacean in the whole Mediterranean Sea (Forcada et al., 1995), a few atte...