{"id":126982,"date":"2020-09-15T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T18:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=126982"},"modified":"2020-09-15T10:00:57","modified_gmt":"2020-09-15T20:00:57","slug":"uh-drones-dolphin-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/09\/15\/uh-drones-dolphin-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphin reproductive research aided by <abbr title=\"东精影业\">东精影业<\/abbr> drones"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_49794\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ESSVwvpU6WY?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>A resident dolphin mother and her new calf at the Hilton Waikoloa Village are helping scientists to evaluate the increasing pressures on wild dolphin populations such as <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span>\u2019s spinner dolphins. The University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at M\u0101noa\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmrphawaii.org\/\">Marine Mammal Research Program<\/a> (<abbr>MMRP<\/abbr>) and <a href=\"https:\/\/dolphinquest.com\/\">Dolphin Quest<\/a> are collaborating on a scientific drone study aimed at better understanding the health of dolphin populations.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists are concerned that frequent human activities in the spinner dolphins\u2019 environment are disrupting the dolphins\u2019 natural behaviors, which may be adversely affecting their reproduction.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fabien Vivier<\/strong>, a <abbr title=\"Doctor of Philosophy\">PhD<\/abbr> student with <abbr>MMRP<\/abbr>, has been operating a drone over a pregnant bottlenose dolphin at the Dolphin Quest facility at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Island. He collected baseline data in order to do the same on the open ocean to detect pregnancy in female dolphins. This will help to estimate pregnancy rates for the populations of dolphins in the wild.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Related <em><abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> News<\/em> stories:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/06\/28\/vivier-antarctic-wildlife-research\/\">&lsquo;Mind-blowing&rsquo; Antarctic scenery, wildlife highlight research trip<\/a>, June 28, 2020<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/04\/marine-mammal-research-program\/\">Stunning drone videos of humpback and gray whales aid new <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> marine mammal research<\/a>, November 4, 2018<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&ldquo;Studying dolphins at Dolphin Quest is really helpful, because it allows us to verify our methodologies at a specific known stage of pregnancy, which couldn\u2019t be accomplished working only in the wild,&rdquo; Vivier said. &ldquo;This information is quite relevant to studying and conserving other species such as <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span>\u2019s spinner dolphins because, even though the species are different, they share many similarities. If we are able to detect pregnancy from a drone perspective in the bottlenose dolphin, the likelihood of detecting pregnancy in a spinner dolphin is very good.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Scientists said continuing reproduction supports critical wildlife conservation and is also good for the dolphin social group.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Reproduction and calf-rearing is important for dolphin welfare. It is a natural and enriching social behavior for dolphins in the wild and in modern zoos, aquariums and marine life parks,&rdquo; said Dolphin Quest Marine Mammal Reproduction Specialist Holley Muraco. &ldquo;Accredited facilities like Dolphin Quest have excellent reproductive success, which leads to long-term population sustainability and eliminates the need for collection from the wild.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Vivier said the next step of surveying spinner dolphins in the wild is scheduled for October. He plans to tweet about the experience through the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mmrp_uh\"><abbr>MMRP<\/abbr>\u2019s Twitter account<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_126981\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-126981\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/manoa-marine-biology-vivier.jpg\" alt=\"man holding drone with dolphin in background\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-126981\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/manoa-marine-biology-vivier.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/manoa-marine-biology-vivier-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/manoa-marine-biology-vivier-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-126981\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Marine Mammal Research Program <abbr title=\"Doctor of Philosophy\">PhD<\/abbr> student Fabien Vivier has been operating a drone above a pregnant dolphin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> Marine Mammal Research Program is collaborating with Dolphin Quest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1363,936,9],"class_list":["post-126982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-marine-mammal-research-program","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126982"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127058,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126982\/revisions\/127058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}