Bottlenose Dolphins

The Bottlenose Dolphin is one the most common and well-known members of this well loved family of mammals who live in the warm waters of the Ocean and who enjoy such an affinity with humans.

  

The Common Bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) and the Indo-Pacific Bottlenose (Tursiops aduncus) inhabit warm and temperate seas worldwide.

Primarily Bottlenose Dolphins are grey in colour and adults can grow to between two and four metres in length and may weigh up to six hundred and fifty kilograms. They are easily distinguishable by their elongated snout or rostrum after which the animal is named, like all whales and dolphins the snout is not used for breathing - they utilise a blowhole on the top of the head for this purpose.

Although Bottlenose Dolphins usually live in small groups, they have been known to number more than one hundred animals in one collective. Their diet consists of small fish mainly and groups often working together as a team to harvest schools of small fish, but may hunt individually. Dolphins search for prey primarily using an echolocation or Doppler technique, which is similar to sonar, (they emit clicking sounds and listen for the return echo to determine the location of potential prey). Bottlenose Dolphins may communicate through their blowholes using sound techniques including squeaks and whistles or by the use body language, such as leaping from the water and slapping their tails on the water.