Mammals of the WorldIndo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin
Tursiops aduncus
- Order
- Artiodactyla
- Family
- Delphinidae
- Genus
- Tursiops
- IUCN status
- NT
- Distribution
- Australia|Bahrain|Bangladesh|Brunei|Cambodia|China|Comoros|Djibouti|Egypt|Eritrea|India|Indonesia|Iran|Iraq|Japan|Jordan|Kenya|Kuwait|Madagascar|Malaysia|Maldives|Mauritius|Mayotte|Mozambique|Myanmar|Oman|Pakistan|Papua New Guinea|Philippines|Qatar|Saudi Arabia|Seychelles|Singapore|Solomon Islands|South Africa|Sri Lanka|Sudan|Tanzania|Thailand|East Timor|United Arab Emirates|Taiwan|Somalia|Yemen|Vietnam?
- Realm
- Marine
Other names: Indian Ocean Bottlenose Dolphin|Bottlenose Dolphin
About this species
Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin belongs to bottlenose dolphin. This dolphin grows to 2.6 m (8.5 ft) long, and weighs up to 230 kg (510 lb). The species occupies the waters around India, northern Australia, South China, the Red Sea, and the eastern coast of Africa. Its back is dark grey and its belly is lighter grey or nearly white with grey spots. The species is generally smaller than the common bottlenose dolphin, has a proportionately longer rostrum, and has spots on its belly and lower sides. (Wikipedia, general species account).
Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins feed on a wide variety of fish and cephalopods (particularly squid). The prey items found in the stomach contents included 50 species of bony fish and three species of squid. From their results, the researchers concluded the most important prey group was fish, which accounted for 87% of the total number of prey items consumed and occurred in 24 of 26 stomachs examined. Cephalopods comprised the other 13% of prey items and were found in 13 of the 26 stomachs. (Wikipedia, general species account).
Description: Wildlife of sulawesi guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)