The Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin lives along warm, shallow coasts of the Indian Ocean and western Pacific and isn't found in US waters. It's a slimmer, longer-beaked cousin of the common bottlenose dolphin, and adults often have dark speckles on the belly. Some in Shark Bay, Australia, carry sea sponges on their beaks while foraging.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Adults reach about 8.5 ft (2.6 m) and up to 510 lb (230 kg). Dark gray above and pale below, with a more slender body and longer, thinner beak than the common bottlenose dolphin. Adults often have black spots or flecks on the belly and lower sides.
Look-alikes
Common Bottlenose DolphinTursiops truncatus
The common bottlenose is larger and stockier with a shorter, thicker beak, and it very rarely has belly spots. Spotted bellies and a long, slim beak point to the Indo-Pacific bottlenose.
Why they get mixed upThey were once considered one species, and their ranges overlap in places.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Warm coastal waters
- Shallow bays
- Range
- Warm coasts of the Indian Ocean and western Pacific, including Japan and Jeju Island in South Korea. It does not occur along US coasts.
- Seasonal presence
- A nearshore species; many populations stay year-round in the same stretch of coast.
Behavior
- Diet
- Mostly fish, plus squid and other .
- Activity
- In Shark Bay, Western Australia, some dolphins wear a sea sponge on the beak, apparently as a tool for probing the seafloor for fish, a behavior called sponging.
- Social life
- Groups of 5 to 15 are most common, though groups of hundreds are sometimes seen. It sometimes mixes with common bottlenose dolphins and humpback dolphins.
Life cycle
- Reproduction
- Calves nurse for 1.5 to 2 years and may stay with their mothers for up to 5 years. Females usually give birth every 4.5 to 6 years.
- Gestation
- About 12 months
- Litter size
- 1 calf
- Lifespan
- More than 40 years.
Name and classification
- About the name
- It was long treated as part of the common bottlenose dolphin and has been recognized as a separate species since 1998. Australia's Burrunan dolphin (Tursiops australis) is treated by some experts as a subspecies of this dolphin and by others as not distinct at all.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NTNear ThreatenedCould become threatened before long
- Status
- Because it lives close to shore, it often overlaps with fishing, and getting tangled in gillnets is a problem across most of its range. Population sizes and trends are still poorly known across much of its range.
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