Bottlenose Dolphins

 

Due to its unique location in the mid-ocean, the island of Madeira is blessed with a very special event: the presence of visiting whales and dolphins, which has only recently been recognized as another asset to this beautiful holiday destination.

Bottlenose dolphins are the most common species and can be seen in the waters near Madeira the whole year. The other species you might see (depending on the season) include: Common Dolphin, Striped Dolphin, Pantropical Dolphin, Atlantic Spotted Dolphin, Rough-toothed Dolphin, and and Risso’s Dolphin.

Bottlenose Dolphins are the most common members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphin. These dolphins are marine mammals that live in tropical and temperate oceans around the world. This includes the waters off the UK and Ireland, where you can spot them swimming and playing in bays and river estuaries.

Description

These beautiful creatures have a short thick beak, as their name suggests, and a curved mouth, giving the appearance that they are always smiling.

They weigh an average of 300 kg (660 pounds). It can reach a length of just over 4 metres (13 feet). Its color is usually dark gray on the back and lighter gray on the flanks. Older dolphins sometimes have a few spots.

Although they live underwater, the bottlenose dolphin must come up to the surface to breath air. It breathes through what”s called a “blowhole”, a hole at the top of its head. These clever creatures can open this hole when inhaling and exhaling out of the water, and close it when below the ocean surface. They can hold their breath underwater for around seven minutes.

Food

Being carnivores, these finned creatures eat mostly fish, but will also eat crustaceans such as shrimp and squid.

Skills

Bottlenose dolphins are super swimmers, gliding through the water using their curved dorsal fin on their back, a powerful tail and pointed flippers. They can reach speeds over 30km an hour and dive as deep as 250m below the surface.

These skillful creatures are awesome acrobats, too, and can be seen flipping (or “breaching”) out of the water. In fact, they can launch themselves up to 6 meters (20 feet) out of the water before crashing back down with a splash. There are different theories as to why they do this – it could be to get a better view of things in the distance, clean parasites off their bodies, communicate with other pods or just for good fun.

They can use tools such as “sponging” (using marine sponges to forage for food sources they normally could not access) and transmit cultural knowledge from generation to generation.

They have also been trained by militaries to locate sea mines or detect and mark enemy divers. The deepest dive ever recorded for a bottlenose dolphin was 300 meters (990 feet). This was accomplished by Tuffy, a dolphin trained by the US Navy.

In some areas, they cooperate with local fishermen by driving fish into their nets and eating the fish that escape.

Intelligence

Bottlenose dolphins are considerably intelligent and have driven interaction with humans. Bottlenose dolphins gained popularity from aquarium shows and television programs such as Flipper.

Bottlenose dolphins have the third largest encephalization levels of any mammal on Earth (humans have the largest), sharing close ratios with those of humans and other great apes, which more than likely contributes to their high intelligence and emotional intelligence.

Interaction

Bottlenose dolphins are social creatures that travel in groups, called “pods”, of around 10-15. In these groups they play and hunt together, as well as cooperate to raise young dolphin calves and help each other.

Communication

Bottlenose dolphins are kings of communication. They send each other messages in different ways – they squeak and whistle and also use body language, leaping out of the water, snapping their jaws and even butting heads.

These magnificent mammals also produce high-pitched clicks to help them navigate and find food – a process called “echolocation”. When the clicking sounds hit an object in the water – such as a rock or fish – they bounce back to the dolphin as echoes. From this, the super swimmers can work out the location, size and shape of the object.

Longevity

Bottlenose dolphins can live for more than 40 years. Females typically live 5–10 years longer than males, with some females exceeding 60 years. This extreme age is rare and less than 2% of all Bottlenose dolphins will live longer than 60 years. Nellie, the longest-lived Atlantic bottlenose dolphin in human care, died at age 61 on April 30, 2014. Nellie was born on Feb, 27, 1953 at Marineland.

Predators

Some large shark species, such as the tiger shark, the dusky shark, the great white shark and the bull shark, prey on the bottlenose dolphin, especially calves.

However, the biggest predators that have posed the greatest threat to these

incredible creatures are humans.

Millions of dolphins have either drowned in fishing nets or have been

slaughtered for the meat market. Tuna fishing crews and Japanese hunts have

been the most responsible for the largest number of killings and deaths.