Short-beaked Common Dolphin
Delphinus delphis
Physical Description
- Small marine mammals, weighing an average of 170 pounds with length just under 6 feet.
- Rounded forehead and 40-57 pairs of small, sharp teeth in beak.
- Body is sleek and aerodynamic with a relatively large, triangular dorsal fin on back.
- Dark gray coloration on back, forming V on sides, with yellowish tan side panels.
- A narrow dark stripe runs from the lower jaw to the flipper.
- Males slightly larger than females.
Range
- Cosmopolitan distribution.
- Washington down south to coast of Chile in Pacific.
- East Coast of Canada to Florida in Atlantic.
- Found in North Pacific north of Hawaii, New Zealand, Tasmania, Southeast Asia.
- All throughout Europe and North Africa, eastern Africa.
Habitat
- Prefer warm tropical to cool temperate waters.
- Primarily found in oceanic and offshore waters.
- Often in association with underwater ridges, seamounts, and continental shelves where cold, nutrient-dense bottom water is upwelling.
Reproduction
- Males become sexually mature at 10 and females at 8 years old.
- Off the California coast, calves are born in winter after a 10-11 month gestation period.
- In the eastern tropical Pacific, calves are born year-round.
- Every 2-3 years, an adult female will give birth to a baby that is 2.5 to 3 feet long.
- Calves nurse for about a year, and are dependent on their mothers for another year or more.
Diet
- Squid, small schooling fish.
- They often swim with schools of tuna and flocks of seabirds.
Predators
- Common dolphins’ natural predators are larger sharks, like bull sharks and great whites.
- Common dolphins are hunted for meat and oil in Russia, Japan, and countries around the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea.
Interesting Facts
- Common dolphins are called common because they are some of the most abundant marine mammals on earth..
- They are sometimes found swimming in pods of over 3000 individuals..
- They are very active at the surface, somersaulting and leaping out of the water..
Sources: Voices in the Sea; NOAA Fisheries; Dive-The-World.com
Photo: Thomas A. Blackman
To hear a common dolphin’s call and see videos of them swimming, visit Voices in the Sea, a collaboration between the Pacific Life Foundation and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.