Knowledge of the habitat use of wildlife in highly impacted areas is essential to identify areas of biological importance and to implement appropriate conservation measures. The Arabian Gulf represents one of the most extreme marine environments and is considered one of the regions in the world with the greatest anthropogenic impact. Information on the habitat use and abundance of marine top predator species is, however, lacking, despite being a prerequisite for effective planning of conservation measures. Here, we provide novel information for the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) in the Arabian Gulf (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates). Data from 80 daily surveys conducted between June 2014 and November 2019 were used both to assess correlates of bottlenose dolphin habitat use and relative density and to calculate mark-recapture abundance estimates. This study confirms the strong adaptability and tolerance of this top marine predator to extreme environmental conditions within a highly heterogeneous and impacted marine habitat. The observed preferences for areas with less human pressure were likely a result of the interactions of environmental factors with prey availability and human disturbance. This study also provides the first abundance estimates for a bottlenose dolphin population in the Arabian Gulf. Our findings support the call for increased marine-protected areas and the creation of transboundary conservation areas in the region. Regional connectivity should be of value to marine predators whose wide distribution and vulnerability to human activities means that alteration of their habitats can result in population declines and eventual local or regional extinctions.

了解在高危地区野生动物的栖息地使用情况对于确定具有生物重要性的地区和实施适当的保护措施至关重要。阿拉伯湾是最极端的海洋环境之一，被认为是世界上人为影响最大的地区之一。然而，尽管是有效规划保护措施的先决条件，但缺乏关于海洋顶级捕食者物种的栖息地利用和丰度的信息。在这里，我们提供了有关印度太平洋宽吻海豚 ( Tursiops aduncus) 的新信息）在阿拉伯湾（阿拉伯联合酋长国阿布扎比）。2014 年 6 月至 2019 年 11 月期间进行的 80 次日常调查的数据用于评估宽吻海豚栖息地使用和相对密度的相关性，并计算标记重捕丰度估计值。这项研究证实了这种顶级海洋捕食者对高度异质和受影响的海洋栖息地中的极端环境条件的强大适应性和耐受性。观察到的对人类压力较小区域的偏好可能是环境因素与猎物可用性和人类干扰相互作用的结果。这项研究还首次提供了阿拉伯湾宽吻海豚种群的丰度估计值。我们的研究结果支持增加海洋保护区和在该地区建立跨界保护区的呼吁。区域连通性应该对海洋捕食者有价值，因为海洋捕食者分布广泛且易受人类活动影响，因此栖息地的改变可能导致种群减少并最终导致局部或区域灭绝。