|
|
| |
|
|
Bottle Nose Dolphin
|
 |
|
There
are at least thirty two species of dolphins. The bottle nosed dolphin, a
popular performer, the common dolphin and the tucuxi dolphin (also known
as the buffeo, or river dolphin) are some of the better known varieties.
The
bottle-nosed dolphin belongs to the family Delphinidae in the suborder
Odontoceti and order Cetacea.
Scientifically, they have been classified as
Tursiops truncatus.
The
bottlenosed dolphin has been so named, courtesy its peculiar snout. The
snout is distinctly set off from the head, like the neck of a bottle. They
may be found in almost all tropical and temperate coastal waters. They
move around in groups consisting of lesser than twenty dolphins. Special
offshore varieties that may be found in many places and in the deep water,
form schools that can be as large as two hundred. Some of them make
seasonal migrations.
|
|
|
|
|
This
variety of dolphin is usually dark grey or black at the top. It has a
lighter belly. The length of adults varies, from about two meters to
nearly four. In general, males are slightly larger than females, and
cold-water bottle nosed dolphins are larger than their warm-water
counterparts.
The
bottle-nosed dolphin needs variety in its food. It feeds on shrimps,
squids, other invertebrates and fish. The quantity of food intake per day is said to be one-third the
dolphin’s weight. The dolphins feed by nosing into near-shore rocky
crevasses, by chasing fish onto mud banks and snapping them up while they
are beached, or by co-operatively herding prey into dense clusters,
sometimes against a shore or up to the surface of the water. These smart
creatures sometimes follow shrimp boats for the prey that they stir up and
for the catch that is tossed overboard.
|
Bottlenose Dolphin |
|
| |
|
Bottlenosed
dolphins are gregarious by nature. In some near-shore societies, they
appear to stay together for life.
The
female of the species attains maturity between years five and twelve,
while the male members do so between ages nine and thirteen. A calf is
born after a gestation period of about twelve months. Usually, a single
calf is born. The calves nurse for up to eighteen months.
The
dolphins communicate by means of a rich repertoire of whistles and rasping
sounds, and in at least some populations, individuals appear to have a
signature whistle. Bottlenose dolphins are able to discriminate even
small objects by echolocation. They send out high frequency clucks, that
bounce off the prey and other objects, and the dolphins use the returning
echoes to distinguish the objects. For this reason, most studies of
echo location in dolphins have used bottle-nosed dolphins as subjects.
Bottle-nosed
dolphins are often considered the most adaptable of the cetaceans. They
are the most commonly kept dolphins in zoos and marine aquaria. They are
frequently hunted for meat, fertilizer and oil. Fortunately, in spite of
this fact, their number does not seem to have reduced significantly,
except in the Black Sea.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|