visual laterality of calf–mother interactions in wild whales视觉一侧calf-mother交互在野生鲸鱼.pdfVIP

Visual Laterality of Calf–Mother Interactions in Wild Whales 1. 1. 2 1 2 Karina Karenina , Andrey Giljov , Vladimir Baranov , Ludmila Osipova , Vera Krasnova , Yegor Malashichev1,3* 1 Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology and Soil Sciences, Saint-Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2 Laboratory of Marine Mammals, P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Moscow, Russia, 3 Department of Embryology, Faculty of Biology and Soil Sciences, Saint-Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia Abstract Background: Behavioral laterality is known for a variety of vertebrate and invertebrate animals. Laterality in social interactions has been described for a wide range of species including humans. Although evidence and theoretical predictions indicate that in social species the degree of population level laterality is greater than in solitary ones, the origin of these unilateral biases is not fully understood. It is especially poorly studied in the wild animals. Little is known about the role, which laterality in social interactions plays in natural populations. A number of brain characteristics make cetaceans most suitable for investigation of lateralization in social contacts. Methodology/Principal Findings: Observations were made on wild beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) in the greatest breeding aggregation in the White Sea. Here we show that young calves (in 29 individually identified and in over a hundred of individually not recognized mother-calf pairs) swim and rest significantly longer on a mother’s right side. Further observations along with the data from other cetaceans indicate that found laterality is a r