Defining the activity patterns and social relationships of animals can provide valuable information related to animal welfare. Bottlenose dolphins under professional care engage in a variety of social and solitary activities, which may be influenced by conspecifics, time of day, and maternal behaviors. The study examined the social, solitary, and maternal behaviors of eight dolphins at one zoological facility. Data about social and solitary behaviors, nursing occurrences, and mother–calf pair swimming were collected five days per week over a ten-month period. The simple ratio index was used to calculate association rates for all dyads. Affiliative behaviors were the dominant behavior class and all behavior categories and swim states showed temporal oscillations throughout the day. The high association values within the mother–calf dyads suggested these ties remain strong through the second and third years of life. Preferred associates remained the same for some individuals in both social group compositions, while they differed for others. However, no large reductions in associations were recorded, suggesting strong relationships in the subgroups continued when other individuals were present. Examining sociality and activity levels may be a useful tool in continuing to improve welfare as they may be related to social groupings and environmental factors.

The bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus; henceforth ‘dolphin’) is a social species that lives in fission–fusion societies and can develop long-term associations between individuals. Under professional care, dolphins engage in a variety of social and solitary activities, which vary due to factors including, but not limited to, the time of day, the composition of the group, and age. However, less is known about the relationships between adult female dolphins as well as the maternal care and behavior of dependent juveniles. Observing behavioral and association patterns can be used to inform management decisions regarding the animals’ environments, social groups, health, and husbandry practices.

Various factors must be considered when evaluating these patterns, including temporal oscillations in behavior changes. Specifically, dolphins engage in more social, sexual, and play behaviors in the mornings and early afternoons when compared with the late afternoons. In addition, dolphins under professional care are more active during the day than at night. During the day, dolphins spend the majority of their time engaging in low intensity swimming, low intensity playing, and social play. In cetaceans, affiliative behaviors, such as social play, rubbing, and synchronous swimming, are considered behaviors indicative of positive welfare. In addition, social play behaviors are inversely related to agonistic behaviors, which are reported to occur at relatively low rates under professional care.

Dolphins have prolonged nursing and association periods, which can last up to three to six years and generally follow a pattern of very high levels of care at birth with a slow decline in maternal care over several years as the offspring gain independence. Similarly, the rate of nursing decreases as calves’ age.

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