- Bottlenose dolphins are a type of marine mammal.
- Bottlenose dolphins are found in warm oceans and waters around the world.
- Bottlenose dolphins of North America are not endangered or threatened.
- As the name “bottlenose” suggests, this kind of dolphin has a short, stubby beak.
- Bottlenose dolphins have a curved dorsal fin in the middle of their back, powerful, broad flukes on their tail, and a pointed flipper on each side.
- Bottlenose dolphins have a thick layer of fat, which helps them maintain their body heat and protects them from predators such as killer whales and large sharks.
- Bottlenose dolphins, besides whales and porpoises, belong to the Cetacean order, whose closest relatives on land include hippopotamuses.
- Bottlenose dolphins are social animals and generally live in groups called ‘pods.’
- Bottlenose dolphins’ names suggest that they have narrow, bottle-shaped snouts, which help streamline their sleek, powerful bodies.
- North American Bottlenose dolphins are usually black to a light gray, with white bellies, sometimes slightly pink.
- Sometimes bottlenose dolphin has spots on their bellies and a stripe from the eye to the flipper base.
- Bottlenose dolphins are the ocean’s most efficient swimmers.
- They can live underwater and hold their breath for up to 7 minutes; dolphins must come to the surface to breathe air.
- They have sensitive, smooth skin that flakes off and gets replaced every few hours.
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- A muscular flap covers their blowhole while underwater and opens to exhale once they reach the surface.
- Bottlenose dolphins can exhale air at 160 km/hr (100 mph.)
- When they inhale, they can exchange up to 80% of the contents of their lungs.
- Dolphins aren’t reflex breathers like humans.
- Bottlenose dolphins can never fully sleep.
- North American bottlenose dolphins feature front flippers, flukes, and a dorsal fin, which they use to aid their swimming.
- The dorsal fin, located near the middle of the back, is tall and curved.
- The Bottlenose dolphins’ diets’ are composed primarily of various fish, such as mullet, tuna, and mackerel.
- They have also been known to eat bottom-feeders and a variety of crustaceans and squid.
- As mammals, bottlenose dolphins bear live young rather than laying eggs like fish, reptiles, and birds.
- During breeding, male dolphins will fight other males for female mates.
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- At breeding times, bottlenose dolphins work in pairs to separate and protect a single female.
- Dolphins must consciously swim to the surface to take a breath.
- Once mating has successfully occurred, a female will give birth in an average of 12 months.
- Breeding can occur at any time of the year but occurs mainly in the spring, with a smaller peak in the fall.
- A newborn dolphin is called a calf.
- Adult dolphins range from roughly 6.5 to 13 feet in length and from 330 to nearly 1500 pounds in weight.
- Dolphins have been known to follow fishing boats, stealing fish from their nets.
- Bottlenose dolphins communicate with ‘echolocation,’ a sonar in which the dolphin identifies objects by producing a range of squeaks and clicks and listening for the resulting echoes.
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- Bottlenose dolphins are known for their playful nature and can often be seen frolicking and diving out of the water.
- They are vulnerable to many threats, including disease, biotoxins, pollution, habitat alteration, vessel collisions, human feeding and activities causing harassment, interactions with commercial and recreational fishing, energy exploration, oil spills, and other types of human disturbance (such as underwater noise.)
- Bottlenose dolphins have 18 to 28 conical-shaped teeth on each side of each jaw.
- They do not chew their food with their teeth.
- The bottlenose dolphin is a very social animal.
- Bottlenose dolphins engage in aggressive behavior, such as biting, ramming, tail slapping, and bonding and acceptance behavior, such as rubbing and stroking.
- Dolphins can communicate through touch.
- Each day, an adult Bottlenose dolphin can eat 6.8 to 13.5 kg (15 to 30 pounds) of food.
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- Bottlenose dolphins are polygamous.
- A female will look after the calf until it reaches 18 – 20 months.
- Bottlenose dolphins give birth every 3 to 6 years. Females usually fall pregnant soon after weaning and can continue giving birth until their late forties.
- Females bottlenose dolphins usually reach sexual maturity between five and ten years and males between 8 and 13.
- Bottlenose dolphins lack a sense of smell. They have a sense of taste, distinguishing between sweet, sour, salty, and bitter flavors.
- The worldwide population of common bottlenose dolphins is about 600,000.
- Male bottlenose dolphins are slightly larger than females.
- Newborn calves weigh approximately 20 kg (44 lbs.)
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- Female dolphins are called a cow.
- Male dolphins are called bulls.
- Young dolphins are called calves.
- Bottlenose dolphins have excellent eyesight and hearing and can use echolocation to find the exact location of objects.
- Dolphins communicate with each other by clicking, whistling, and making different sounds.
- Bottlenose dolphins face the threat of extinction, often directly as a result of human behavior.
- Some fishing methods, such as nets, kill many dolphins in North America every year.
- Their sense of touch is well-developed, but they have no sense of smell.
- Dolphins eat through their mouths and breathe through their blowholes.
- Bottlenose dolphin’s pregnancies range from 11 to 17 months.
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- When a pregnant female dolphin is ready to deliver, she separates herself from the rest of the pod to a location near the water’s surface.
- Dolphin calves are usually born tail first.
- At birth, calves are about 35–40 inches long and weigh between 23 and 65 pounds.
- Because they are mammals, they breathe air into their lungs like other mammals.
- The mother immediately brings her infant to the surface so it can breathe.
- Newborn calves look a bit different from their parents. They typically have dark skin with lighter bands, which fade over time.
- Newborn calves’ fins are pretty soft but harden very quickly.
- They can swim almost immediately but do require the protection of the pod.
- The young dolphins usually are nursed for the first two to three years of life.
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- Newborn calves can stay with their mothers for up to eight years.
- In most cases, Bottlenose dolphins can live at least 40 years.
- Female bottlenose dolphins outlive males and can live for more than 60 years.
- Dolphins generally begin to reproduce when they are between 5 and 15 years old,
- Female bottlenose dolphins reach sexual maturity before males.
- Females as old as 45 have given birth.
- Bottlenose dolphins do not have a traditional mating season.
- One less surprising Bottlenose dolphins fact is that they are amazingly playful.
- Bottlenose dolphins are omnivores with a diet that consists of a wide variety of foods.
- Being mammals, bottlenose dolphins do not breathe underwater.
- Bottlenose dolphins can hold their breath but breathe four to five times per minute, on average, when on the surface.
- Because dolphins can only breathe through their blowhole, their mouths are free to catch prey, stopping water from getting into their lungs.
- Bottlenose dolphins’ brains are larger than a humans.
- Bottlenose dolphins can recognize themselves in a mirror and even use the mirror to check different parts of their bodies.
- Dolphins can determine the shape, speed, size, distance, and direction of travel regarding surrounding objects.
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- Bottlenose dolphins recognize different sounds made by individual dolphins.
- Bottlenose dolphins sleep in two different ways. They can rest quietly in the water, vertically or horizontally.
- They can also sleep while swimming slowly next to another dolphin.
- A mother dolphin cannot stop swimming for the first few weeks of her calf’s life because the calf will sink.
- Baby dolphins rest, eat and sleep while their mother swims.
- One side of the bottlenose dolphin’s brain must always be active so that they remember to breathe.
- With eyes located at the side of their heads, they have a nearly 360-degree field of vision.
- Bottlenose dolphins have strong eye muscles, which can change their lens shape and allow them to focus underwater and on the surface.
- Bottlenose dolphins also have an excellent sense of hearing.
- Sounds travel through their lower jaw to their inner ear.
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- Each Bottlenose dolphins have a signature whistle used to identify itself.
- When lost or isolated, they use the signature whistle to call out to the group.
- Bottlenose dolphins take turns herding fish into smaller areas while others swim and snap the fish up.
- Bottlenose dolphins generally swim in groups (called pods) of 10-25.
- Offshore, bottlenose dolphins have been seen in groups of several hundred.
- Large groups of dolphins are called herds.
- Bottlenose dolphins have been documented creating bubble rings with their blowholes, spinning them with their beaks, and then breaking them apart by biting them.
- Bottlenose dolphins are one of the most intelligent mammals on Earth.
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Bryan Harding is a member of the American Society of Mammalogists and a member of the American Birding Association. Bryan is especially fond of mammals and has studied and worked with them around the world. Bryan serves as owner, writer, and publisher of North American Nature.