Education Marine Mammal Species Information - Marine Mammal Conservancy (MMC)
The Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin
(Tursiops truncatus)
The Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin can reach a length of up to 12.5
feet and a weight of up to 1,435 pounds. Most specimens of the bottlenose
dolphin are smaller, averaging about 9 feet and weighing about 500
pounds. The bottlenose dolphin is further broken down into an inshore
and offshore species. The offshore species tends to be larger. They
are known to ride the surf and have been seen jumping clear of the
water as high as 15-20 feet. Most bottlenose dolphins occur in groups
of anywhere from single animals to several hundred individuals where
the larger groups break down into smaller groups with no more than
a dozen animals in each. Populations of these mammals can be found
along most coastal and inshore waters including some of the enclosed
seas such as the Black Sea, Mediterranean etc... There is also an
offshore population that lives along the edges of the continental
shelf. The coastal habitat of bottlenose dolphins has become hazardous
to their health due to chemical pollution, human interaction and
commercial fishing activities. People occasionally feed the wild
animals that can cause infection and gastrointestinal problems.
This occasional feeding leads the dolphins to become habituated
to human interaction and many of those dolphins will later get into
trouble with fish hooks and fish lines. A dolphins normal diet consist
of fish, squid and krill.
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