Four Bottlenose Dolphins

Image from Boat Talk;Bottlenose Dolphin

Habitat

Bottlenose dolphins live worldwide in cold and tropical oceans and, sometimes, in rivers, bays, waterways, lagoons, the open sea, surf coasts, or lakes.

(Information from Unique Australian Animals)

Social Behavior

Bottlenose dolphins stay in pods, which is a group of dolphins. The dolphins always help each other if one of them is injured. This is done by carrying the injured dolphin to the surface with their flippers so that they can breath. If there are sharks around, the dolphins work together to drive it away by slamming their hard snouts into the sharks’ soft side to injure or even kill it.

(Information from Unique Australian Animals)

Two Jumping Dolphins

Image from Dolphin Watch Marlborough Photo Gallery

Senses

Dolphins have many good senses. One of them is hearing. Dolphins may have tiny ears, but they can use their lower jaw to help them hear. There are fatty tissues inside the lower jaw that conduct sound very well so that the dolphin can still hear, if not with its ears. Bottlenose dolphins have an excellent sense of taste because their taste buds are very sharp. They can feel quite well since they have sensitive skin. There sense of smell is not very good though because dolphins don’t need to smell objects.

(Information from Unique Australian Animals)

Echolocation

Bottlenose dolphins can produce high-pitched clicks and squeaks, or sonar, which they create with the help of the melon, nasal sacs, and blowhole. The sounds bounce off an object and the echo comes back to the dolphin. The dolphin then generates the sonar with fatty tissue in its lower jaw to determine what the object is and how far it is by how long it took the echo to come back.

(Information from Unique Australian Animals)

Feeding

Bottlenose dolphins feed on a wide variety of food. Some creatures that they eat are fish, squid, octopus, and shrimp. What they eat usually depends on where in the world the dolphin is. Adult bottlenose dolphins eat about 15kg of food every day, which they swallow whole.

(Information from Unique Australian Animals)

Breeding

Bottlenose dolphins can live above thirty years old. Their regular age to start breeding is around ten years. After the female dolphin is pregnant for one year, the calf is born. The baby dolphins are born in a medium-shallow and warm area. After the calf is born, it drinks milk from its mother for one and a half years until it is old enough to eat fish.

(Information from Unique Australian Animals)