June 18, 2024 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlightedthe following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source proofread by Anna Zarra Aldrich, University of Connecticut When Sylvain De Guise and his friends get together, it's not at a barbeque or for a game of pickleball. Their reunions happen on research boats.
De Guise, professor of pathobiology and veterinary science within the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, and his colleagues have been studying dolphin populations in the Southeastern United States for decades. Each summer, they go out onto the water to gather samples and study the dolphins' health. "It's like meeting 80 of your best friends every year at camp," says De Guise, who is also director of Connecticut Sea Grant.
"There's a camaraderie." Much like a human's annual check-up, one of the key components of evaluating the dolphin's health is a blood sample. Now, this group has developed a new and improved way to understand what these samples mean for the health of the entire population.
They published their findings in Conservation Biology . The group sorted through the years and years of data they had collected on hundreds of dolphins to determine which biological signals could tell them the most about a dolphin's long-term survival. "We did a retrospective study looking at different populations that were sam.