Resources

The Evolution of Sex Differences in Mammalian Social Life Histories

Data set information

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General  
Data holding centreBritish Oceanographic Data Centre
CountryUnited Kingdom  United Kingdom
Time period1st of January 1979 to 31st of August 2019
OngoingNo
Geographical area

Observations were conducted in the inland and coastal waters of Washington State (USA) and British Columbia (Canada), focusing on Southern Resident killer whales.

Observations 
Parameters

Cetacean abundance; Fish abundance in water bodies; Cetacean behaviour; Cetacean morphology and physiology; Cetacean reproduction

Description 
Summary

The Evolution of Sex Differences in Mammalian Social Life Histories project ran from July 2019 - December 2024 to study social behaviour and life histories between the sexes in long-lived social mammals. Derived datasets were produced to investigate how age and sex influence social relationships within a pod of Southern Resident killer whales and whether postreproductive female killer whales reduce socially inflicted injuries in their offspring, within the inland and coastal waters of Washington State (USA) and British Columbia (Canada). Individual records include identity, sex, age-sex class, social unit composition and maternal kinship estimates, derived from photographic and drone footage analysis. Derived data was also used to investigate age-linked changes in local relatedness, from long-term demographic, pedigree, and social monitoring programs for southern resident killer whales. Demographic information were obtained from the long-term population census maintained by the Center for Whale Research, spanning 1979 - 2013 and long-term individual based studies of killes whales. Unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) were used for video observations of Southern Resident killer whales (J Pod) collected during summer 2019. The data collected from this project were funded by the NERC Discovery Science grant NE/S010327/1, awarded to principal investigator Professor Darren Croft at the University of Exeter.

OriginatorsBritish Oceanographic Data Centre
Centre for Whale Research
University of Exeter
Data web sitehttps://www.bodc.ac.uk/about/contact_us/contact_details/
Availability 
OrganisationBritish Oceanographic Data Centre
AvailabilityLicence
ContactPolly Hadžiabdić (Head of requests)
Address

British Oceanographic Data Centre
Joseph Proudman Building 6 Brownlow Street
Liverpool
Merseyside
L3 5DA
United Kingdom

Emailenquiries@bodc.ac.uk
Administration 
Collating centreBritish Oceanographic Data Centre
Local identifier1048_NE_S010327_1
Global identifier7529
Last revised2026-07-01