You’re about to learn here some of the most interesting common bottlenose dolphin facts. Common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is the most famous dolphin in the world. It can leap 20 feet high into the air. The dolphin uses different methods and sounds to communicate like closing its jaws with a snap, jumping high into the air and thumping its lobes on the water surface. It also makes whistles, squeaks and clicking sounds. Let’s take at Bottlenose dolphin facts and information.
Bottlenose Dolphin🐬Facts for Kids
The body is dark gray on top and pale-gray to white from below. It has long snout with a blowhole that is located at the top. The blowhole is the nose of the dolphin. It has very good eyesight but poor sense of smell. This is because it shuts down the blowhole in underwater and opens it up during respiration.
Each upper or lower jaw contains 18 to 28 cone-like teeth. There are no bones inside the dorsal fin or flukes (tail lobes) of this dolphin. About 20 percent of its body weight consists of thick layer of fat called blubber.
The adult bottlenose dolphins can grow from a length range of 6.6 to 13 feet and weigh betw
een 330 and 1,430 pounds. Normally, the male adults are 8.2 feet long and up to 660 pounds in weight. The bottlenose dolphins that live in cooler waters tend to be larger than the warm-dwelling dolphins.
Bottlenose Dolphin Lifespan: These dolphins have a lifespan of at least 40 to 50 years. As compare to males, the female bottlenose dolphins tend to live 10 years longer.
A female dolphin reaches maturity at the age range of 5 to 14 years while the males get mature at around 9 to 14 years.
The newborns are born in summer. A female bottlenose dolphin gives birth to one calf. She continues to suckle her calf for as long as 8 years. A female dolphin produces offspring after every 2 to 6 years. A newborn calf is around 2.6 to 4.6 feet in length and weighs around 20 to 66 pounds.
They live in warm to temperate waters around the world.
What Do Bottlenose Dolphins Eat? These dolphins tend to eat squid, crustaceans and small fish.
The male dolphins may live singly or in pods (group name) of up to 2 or 3 individuals. However, a mother and her calves tend to remain in pods of up to 100 individuals.
Bottlenose Dolphin Speed: These dolphins can swim at a speed of up to 18 to 22 mph. In one minute, the dolphin surfaces for up to 3 times for respiring.
What Eats Bottlenose Dolphins? The predators for the bottlenose dolphin are large sharks. These sharks include the white pointer, the zambezi or bull shark, the sea tiger (tiger shark) and the dusky shark.
