Females reach sexual maturity at about 5-10 years. Mating and Breeding: Males reach sexual maturity at about 10 years. Bottlenose dolphins eat a wide variety of food, including primarily fishes, and sometimes squid, and crustaceans.
An adult bottlenose dolphin may consume 15-30 pounds (8-15 kg) of food each day. Males are significantly larger than females.įeeding: Feeding behaviors are diverse, primarily involving individual prey capture, but sometimes involving coordinated efforts to catch food, feeding in association with human fishing, and chasing fish into mudbanks. These dolphins may weigh as much as 1,430 pounds (650 kg) off Great Britain, though most are much smaller in other parts of the world. Length and Weight: Adult length is from 8-12 feet (2.5-3.8 m). The flippers are of moderate length and pointed. The flukes are broad and curved with a deep median notch. There are 18-26 pairs of sharp, conical teeth in each side of its jaw.ĬOLOR: The color of the bottlenose dolphin varies considerably, but generally this dolphin is light gray to slate gray on the upper part of the body shading to lighter sides and pale, pinkish gray on the belly.įINS AND FLUKE: The dorsal fin is high and falcate (curved) and located near the middle of the back. The bottlenose dolphin (like the beluga) has more flexibility in its neck than other oceanic dolphins, because 5 of the 7 neck vertebrae are not fused together as in the other oceanic dolphins. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: This is a relatively robust dolphin with a usually short and stubby beak - hence the name "bottlenose". Common Bottlenose Dolphin - Tursiops truncatus
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