Page 194 - Atlas Of The World's Strangest Animals

194 ATLAS OF THE WORLD’S STRANGEST ANIMALS

Bottlenose Dolphin

Bottlenose dolphins spend their whole lives in the water, but they aren’t fish,

they’re air-breathing mammals. As if that wasn’t strange enough, these agile and
acrobatic creatures are highly intelligent tool-users with a very sophisticated, if
odd, method of navigating around the ocean depths.

Key Facts ORDER Cetacea / FAMILY Delphinidae /
GENUS & SPECIES Tursiops truncatus

Weight Up to 650kg (1,433Ib)

Length Up to 4m (13.1ft)
Sexual maturity Males: 10 years. Females: 5–10 years
Breeding season All year

Number of young 1
Gestation period 1 year
Breeding interval Average: 2–3 years
Typical diet Fish and crustaceans

Lifespan Up to 40 years in the wild
Flippers
Dolphins’ front limbs are really
elongated hands which, over
time, have evolved into flippers
to aid an aquatic lifestyle.

(c) 2011 Marshall Cavendish. All Rights Reserved.