Killer Whale Mortality Risk and Social Network Position Over Three Decades

Aggregating over three decades of social and demographic data on resident killer whales, examining the relationship between social position and mortality risk. It was authored by Samuel Ellis and published in 2020.

Use Cases

• Analyze the relationship between social position and mortality risk in male killer whales.
• Investigate how social integration mediates mortality risk in years of low salmon abundance.
• Examine sex differences in the effect of social network position on mortality risk.
• Model the interaction between social position, resource abundance, and mortality risk over a multi-decade period.

Strengths

• Data spans over three decades of observation.
• Focuses on a specific, well-studied population of resident killer whales.
• Examines a clear relationship between social position and a key biological outcome (mortality risk).

Limitations

• The dataset's specific structure, column count, and row count are unknown.
• Findings are specific to resident killer whales and may not generalize to other populations or species.
• Relies on observational data where causal mechanisms may be inferred but not proven.

Provenance

Source

Samuel Ellis via Dryad.

Collection Method

Over three decades of social and demographic data collection on resident killer whales.

Time Range

Over three decades (specific years not provided).

Freshness

Last updated in 2020.

Geography

Habitat of resident killer whales (specific location not provided).