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Recent genetic data strongly suggest that the Victorian coastal bottlenose dolphin population is unique and that it is not exchanging genes with other characterized Australian or world-wide populations of dolphins (Charlton et al. in press). The da ta suggests that these dolphins have been isolated for a substantial period of time and are likely to be locally adapted. The current project will use genetic markers to help determine the geographic range of this population and to establish to what extent it is reproductively isolated from other dolphins from Victorian and adjacent waters. We will elucidate the population and breeding structure of the Victorian coastal population, including determining the sex ratio, kinship relationships and levels of genetic diversity. |
