Mammals of the WorldRough-toothed Dolphin
Steno bredanensis
- Order
- Artiodactyla
- Family
- Delphinidae
- Genus
- Steno
- IUCN status
- LC
- Distribution
- Algeria|American Samoa|Angola|Anguilla|Antigua and Barbuda|Aruba|Australia|Bahamas|Bangladesh|Barbados|Belize|Benin|Bermuda|Bonaire|Sint Eustatius|Saba|Brazil|Brunei|Cape Verde|Cambodia|Cameroon|Cayman Islands|Chile|China|Cocos Islands|Colombia|Comoros|Republic of the Congo|Democratic Republic of the Congo|Cook Islands|Costa Rica|Cuba|Curaçao|Cyprus|Cote d'Ivoire|Djibouti|Dominica|Dominican Republic|Ecuador|El Salvador|Equatorial Guinea|Eritrea|Fiji|France|French Guiana|French Polynesia|Gabon|Gambia|Ghana|Greece|Grenada|Guadeloupe|Guam|Guatemala|Guinea|Guinea-Bissau|Guyana|Haiti|Honduras|India|Indonesia|Iran|Israel|Italy|Jamaica|Japan|Kenya|Kiribati|Kuwait|Liberia|Libya|Madagascar|Malaysia|Maldives|Marshall Islands|Martinique|Mauritania|Mauritius|Mexico|Micronesia|Morocco|Mozambique|Myanmar|Namibia|Nauru|New Caledonia|Nicaragua|Nigeria|Niue|Northern Marianas|Oman|Pakistan|Palau|Panama|Papua New Guinea|Peru|Philippines|Pitcairn|Portugal|Puerto Rico|Qatar|Saint Barthélemy|Saint Helena|Saint Kitts and Nevis|Saint Lucia|Sint Maarten|Saint Vincent and the Grenadines|Samoa|São Tomé and Príncipe|Senegal|Seychelles|Sierra Leone|Singapore|Solomon Islands|Somalia|South Africa|Spain|Canary Islands|Sri Lanka|Suriname|Taiwan|Tanzania|Thailand|East Timor|Togo|Tonga|Trinidad and Tobago|Turks and Caicos Islands|United Arab Emirates|United States|Venezuela|Vietnam|British Virgin Islands|United States Virgin Islands|Wallis and Futuna|Yemen|Albania?|Bahrain?|Bosnia and Herzegovina?|Croatia?|Egypt?|Iraq?|Jordan?|North Korea?|South Korea?|Lebanon?|Malta?|Mayotte?|Montenegro?|Montserrat?|Norfolk Island?|Réunion?|Saudi Arabia?|Slovenia?|Sudan?|Syria?|Tunisia?|Turkey?|Tuvalu?|Uruguay?|Vanuatu?
- Realm
- Marine
Other names: Slopehead
About this species
- Diet
- Fish such as silversides, sauries, houndfish, smelts and cutlassfish; squid and octopus
- Habitat
- Deep warm temperate and tropical waters
- Litter size
- 1 young
The rough-toothed dolphin lives in deep, warm-temperate and tropical waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Its most obvious feature is a conical head with a slender nose, unlike other dolphins, which have either a shorter snout or a bulging melon. The lower jaw is usually white and may have a hint of pink, and the flippers are set further back on the body than in similar dolphins. At sea it may be confused with spinner, spotted and bottlenose dolphins (Wikipedia, general species account).
Rough-toothed dolphins are typically social, though solitary animals are seen, and an average group has 10–20 members, from two to ninety. Groups are thought to be temporary assemblages of smaller, more permanent groups of two to eight closely related animals. Details of diet are sketchy, but stranded animals held fish such as silversides, sauries and cutlassfish, and squid and octopus. A single young is born after an unknown gestation (Wikipedia, general species account).
Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)