The Biopsychosocial Nature of Dolphins
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Wildlife".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 237
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue on the biopsychosocial nature of dolphins covers a breadth of behavioral features of free-ranging dolphins, seeking to describe a “day in the life” of a free-ranging bottlenose dolphin, highlighting manifestations of feeding and food sharing, fission–fusion dynamics, reproductive and calf-rearing cycles, conflict and peacemaking, play, and inherent communications of aerial behaviors. Select indicators of greater social complexity are reviewed such as babysitting, self-decoration, and peacemaking, followed by anecdotes that provide glimpses of even greater social complexity, such as third-party intervention on behalf of a harassed calf, as opportunities for hypothesis generation. Field data collection techniques cover population and behavioral sampling with and without recognizing individual dolphins in the field, exploring the advantages and disadvantages of photo identification and drone work. This Special Issue considers data that can be gleaned from strandings, and reviews what is known about healing at sea without medical intervention against published claims of the exceptional healing abilities of dolphins.
I look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Ann Weaver
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- free-ranging dolphins
- social behavior
- social complexity
- social organization
- field data collection techniques
- strandings
- healing
- pollution
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
