Behavioral Lateralization in the Florida Manatee (TRICHECHUS MANATUS LATIROSTRIS)

Kara Tyler

Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Bauer, Gordon

Keywords

Lateralization, Marine Mammals, Manatees, Behavior Preferences, Scars, Laterality

Area of Concentration

Biological Psychology

Abstract

Throughout the lateralization literature many species of animals ranging from fishes to primates show population-level and individual-level behavioral lateralization. This study examined behavioral lateralization in the Florida manatee using observations of 47 wild and 26 captive manatees. Flipper uses were used to determine behavioral lateralization of flipper preferences and scar patterns (N=46) were used to determine lateralization of evasion behavior. Overall for both captive and wild manatees combined, the manatees displayed a tendency to prefer the left flipper at the population level (p=0.07). Manatees display different preferences for different tasks, which may be affected by the complexity of the task. Scar data reveal that manatees may avoid boats to the right as significantly more scars were found on the left side of the body, indicating a population-level bias during evasion behavior and suggesting that manatees may have lateralized brains, at least in terms of the avoidance response.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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