Jessica Salinas
INFO 658
Sula | Pratt SI
November 18, 2021
Lab 3: Network Lab
Dolphins mostly live in pods containing 2 to 30 dolphins. The three types of pods they might live in are: nursery groups (mother-offspring), juvenile pods, and adult male pods. I attempted to analyze the dolphin dataset to search for clues of such pod groupings using Gephi.
For this lab, I imported a dataset that contained data about a network of dolphins in New Zealand. I uploaded them to Gephi as separate CSV files. One contained nodes, the other contained edges. I proceed to use Gephi to visualize the network as a graph.
Working with the modularity button in Gephi, I attempted to locate the kinds of clusters that might be present in this dataset. Gephi’s modularity button ran an algorithm to determine the clusters using a resolution of my choosing. I tried several resolutions to retrieve the best possible result. I then used the layout algorithm Force Atlas 2 in Gephi, and adjusted the node colors to reflect modularity class (clustering).
There are 62 dolphins in all. You can see that there is what appears to be a small juvenile cluster near the bottom of the visualization rendered. The modularity algorithm was set to 0.75 resolution here. The pale-colored group of Bumper, Fish, Beak, and so appear to me to be a group of juvenile dolphins that likely spent much of their time playing together at the time the data was collected. I also interpret other cluster information to reveal maternal bonds. It appears that SMN5 is likely the young offspring of Patchback. It is also likely that MN 105 and MN 83 are Patchback’s family members and/or offspring.
With more knowledge about the kinds of dolphin bonds, one could deduce much more information about what this dataset reveals about this dolphin network. Furthermore, when the data is rendered differently after tweaking the algorithm and other visualization decisions, it could lead one to draw vastly different conclusions.
Works Cited
Dolphin Social Structure. dolphins-world.com. (n.d.). Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.dolphins-world.com/dolphin-social-structure/.
Public Datasets (n.d.) Retrieved November 4, 2021, from http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/tools/datasets/external/index.php#dolphins