Dolphins & Porpoises
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Dolphins are marine mammals and belong to the oceanic dolphin family Delphinidae, the largest in the order Cetacea. They are greatly vary in size from 4 ft (1.2m) 90 lb (40 kg) Maui's Dolphin to 30 ft (9.5 m) 10 ton Killer Whale. Dolphins are one of the most intelligent of all animals.
Porpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae. The most obvious visible difference is that porpoises have flattened, spade-shaped teeth distinct from the conical teeth of dolphins, and shorter beaks.
Porpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae. The most obvious visible difference is that porpoises have flattened, spade-shaped teeth distinct from the conical teeth of dolphins, and shorter beaks.
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6 imagesThe Atlantic Spotted Dolphin, Stenella frontalis, is a dolphin found in the Gulf Stream of the North Atlantic Ocean. Older members of the species have a very distinctive spotted coloration all over their body.
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43 imagesThe Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, is one of the most common and well-known dolphins. Recent molecular studies show it is in fact two species, the Common Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, and the Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops aduncus. Bottlenose Dolphins inhabit warm and temperate seas worldwide. Bottlenose Dolphins are grey in color and can be between 2 and 4 metres (6.6 and 13 ft) long, and weigh between 150 and 650 kilograms (330 and 1,400 lb). Their most distinguishing feature is the elongated snout, or rostrum which gives the animal its common name. Like all whales and dolphins, though, the snout is not the functional nose; rather, the functional nose is the blowhole on the top of its head. Bottlenose Dolphins live in groups called pods that typically number about 15 dolphins, but group size varies from solitary bottlenose dolphins up to groups of over 100 or even occasionally over 1000 animals. Their diet consists mainly of small fish. Dolphin groups often work as a team to harvest schools of fish, but they also hunt individually. Dolphins search for prey primarily using echolocation, which is similar to sonar. They emit clicking sounds and listen for the return echo to determine the location and shape of nearby items, including potential prey. Bottlenose Dolphins also use sound for communication. Sounds used for communication include squeaks and whistles emitted from the blowhole and sounds emitted through body language, such as leaping from the water and slapping their tails on the water.
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38 imagesThe Finless Porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides) is one of six porpoise species. In the waters around Japan, at the northern end of its range, it is known as the sunameri. A freshwater population found in the Yangtze River in China is known locally as the jiangzhu or "river pig".
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223 imagesThe Spinner Dolphin, Stenella longirostris, is a small dolphin found in off-shore tropical waters around the world. It is famous for its acrobatic displays in which they will spin longitudinally along their axis as they leap through the air.
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200 imagesThe Pantropical Spotted Dolphin, Stenella attenuata, is a species of dolphin found in all the world's temperate and tropical oceans. This dolphin species is strongly associated with tuna species and thus, the species was beginning to come under threat due to the killing of millions of individuals in tuna purse seines. The 1980s saw the rise of "dolphin-friendly" tuna capture methods in order to save millions of the species in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
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51 imagesThe Rough-toothed Dolphin (Steno bredanensis) is a fairly large dolphin that can be found in deep warm and tropical waters around the world.