The dolphins scored in the factors Openness to experience (+), Extraversion (+), Agreeableness (+), and Neuroticism (both positive and negative). The personality factors will sometimes be referred to as O+, E+, A+, N+ and N-.

(The main findings are summarised on this page. More detailed information on results not presented here can be found in the menu to the left or by clicking on pictures/links in the text.)

Ariel (female)

Ariel scored in the factors O+, E+, A+ and N-. This means that she displayed behaviours indicating curiosity, playfulness, affiliation and relaxed swimming alone. She was mainly displaying affiliation behaviours. Graph and more info.

Fenah (female)

Fenah scored in the factors O+, E+, A+, N+ and N-. This indicates that Fenah expressed behaviours associated to curiosity, playfulness, affiliation, agonistic and calmness. She was mainly displaying affiliation behaviours. Graph and more info.

Luna (female)

Luna scored in three factors, E+, A+ and N-. This means that Luna was seen carrying out behaviours indicating affiliation, playfulness and calmness. She was mainly displaying affiliation behaviours. Graph and more info.

Lyra (female)

O+, E+, A+, N+ and N- were the factors Lyra scored in. This means that she was observed to express behaviours such as curiosity, playfulness, affiliation, agnostic and relaxed swimming by herself. She was mainly displaying affiliation or calmly swimming alone with no significant difference between the two. Graph and more info.

Nephele (female)

Nephele scored in O+, E+, A+ and N-. This result implies that Nephele expressed behaviours such as curiosity, playfulness, affiliation and calmly swimming alone. She was mainly observed swimming calmly alone. Graph and more info.

Pichi (male)

Pichi scored in the factors O+, A+ and N-. This means that he displayed behaviours such as curiosity, affiliation and calmly swimming alone. He was mainly seen swimming calmly alone. Graph and more info.

Sting (male)

The factors O+, E+, A+, N+ and N- were the ones Sting scored in. This means that Sting was seen displaying behaviours indicating curiosity, playfulness, affiliation, agnostic and swimming calmly alone. He was mainly seen displaying affiliation behaviours. Graph and more info.

Vicky (female)

Vicky scored in E+, A+ and N-. This means that Vicky was seen expressing behaviours indicating playfulness, affiliation and relaxed swimming alone. She was mainly displaying affiliation behaviours. Graph and more info.

When comparing the results of each dolphin within the same factor it was found that Agreeableness (+) and Neuroticism (-) were the two factors where differences between the individuals were found. The factor Agreeableness (+) consisted of affiliation behaviour while Neuroticism (-) consisted mainly of swimming alone behaviour. This was scored as N- since the dolphins appeared relaxed and calm. Two dolphins were observed to mainly swim alone, five were seen expressing affiliation and one did not significantly differ between the two.

For more information on the other factors scored in, please follow this link:

The other three factors.

For information on which individual the dolphins prefer to interact with the coefficients of association were calculated based on the time the dolphins were observed to interact. The result is illustrated by the following graph:

The sociograms are built up based on the total time the dolphins were observed to interact in certain ways. In the presented study three socigrams were created including affiliative behaviours, agonistic behaviours and sexual behaviours. Graphs can be found here.

The sociograms indicate that the dolphins associate mainly in an affiliative way.