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.本研究旨在探究雄性宽吻海豚的社交衰老（social ageing）是否与其个体社交网络位置变化、强社交纽带的选择性维持，以及终生社交关联模式的差异存在相关性。本数据集涵盖11年间经个体识别的雄性宽吻海豚之间的社交关联年度记录。原始数据包含共现目击记录、用于量化成对个体间关联强度的广义亲和指数（Generalized Affiliation Indices, GAIs），以及针对每一年度的每一个体计算得到的网络指标（关联强度、亲密度、中心性、聚类系数）。上述变量可支持开展与年龄相关的社交关系及网络结构的纵向分析。