Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:37:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SandraMAA.pdf: 1203751 bytes, checksum: dde7c569f3d043e9bcc9909cdb14baec (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-10-30 / The behavioral patterns follow to environmental changes, including area fidelity and individuals association patterns. Several techniques are used to record these behavioral patterns and the photo-identification has been suggested as a proper tool because of its various advantages. Based on this technique, this research verified, between August of 2005 and January of 2006, area fidelity and association patterns of Sotalia guianensis, at Distrito de Pipa s bays, Rio Grande do Norte State south coast. Besides, we measured the association patterns by using the Jaccard index or Half-Weight Index (HWI). According the observation, 22 individuals were not resighted, 11 were resighted, and 36 new individuals were recorded. Nowadays, 69 individuals are cataloged. The residency rate indicated heterogeneity on studied area permanence and the association patterns between photo-identified seem to be context-specific. In addiction, the comparison of associations between two different age classes showed some individuals more frequently interacting with immature individuals. We also observed fluidity on association patterns among our individuals. We suggest that S. guianensis population from Pipa shows plasticity / Os padr?es comportamentais acompanham as mudan?as ambientais, incluindo fidelidade ? ?rea e associa??o entre indiv?duos. Dentre as diversas t?cnicas utilizadas para o registro desses padr?es comportamentais, a foto-identifica??o tem sido sugerida como ferramenta adequada por apresentar in?meras vantagens. Baseada nessa t?cnica, esta pesquisa verificou, entre agosto de 2005 e janeiro de 2006, fidelidade ? ?rea e padr?es de associa??o utilizados por indiv?duos da esp?cie Sotalia guianensis, nas enseadas do Distrito de Pipa, litoral sul do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte. Al?m disso, para mensurar os padr?es de associa??o utilizou-se do ?ndice de similaridade de Jaccard ou Half-Weight Index (HWI). Durante o per?odo de observa??o, 22 indiv?duos n?o foram reavistados, 11 recapturados e 36 novos registros foram obtidos. Atualmente, est?o catalogados 69 indiv?duos. A taxa de resid?ncia apontou heterogeneidade de perman?ncia na ?rea estudada e os padr?es de associa??o entre os indiv?duos foto-identificados parecem ser espec?ficos de determinados contextos comportamentais. Enquanto que a compara??o das associa??es entre as diferentes faixas et?rias mostrou que determinados indiv?duos interagiram em maior freq??ncia com indiv?duos imaturos. Observou-se, ainda, fluidez no padr?o de associa??es entre os indiv?duos amostrados. Sugere-se que a popula??o de S. guianensis que utilizam a regi?o de Pipa apresenta elevada plasticidade