Social ageing and network dynamics in bottlenose dolphins

This study tests whether social ageing in male bottlenose dolphins is associated with changes in individual social network positions, selective maintenance of strong social bonds, and differences in association patterns across the lifespan. The dataset includes annual records of associations between individually identified male dolphins over 11 years. Raw data comprise co-occurrence sightings, Generalized Affiliation Indices (GAIs) quantifying the strength of pairwise associations, and calculated network metrics (association strength, affinity, centrality, clustering) for each individual and year. These variables allow longitudinal analysis of social relationships and network structure in relation to age.