Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin
Tursiops aduncus
Valid name. Recognised as a separate species from T. truncatus in the late 1990s; field separation is not always easy.
- English
- Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin
- Scientific
- Tursiops aduncus
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Dolphins
- Maximum size
- About 2.6-2.7 m
- Depth and habitat
- Inside the atolls or just outside, in shallower water
- IUCN status
- NT · Near ThreatenedNear Threatened (NT), assessed 2019
Description
A slimmer, smaller relative of the common bottlenose dolphin with a proportionally longer beak. Adults develop dark spots or flecks on the belly and lower sides. It lives in coastal and shallow waters and feeds on reef and bottom-dwelling fish and squid. Groups are usually small.
In the Maldives
Confirmed in the Maldives by close observations and photographs: occurs inside the atolls or just outside, in small groups or singly, and rarely mixes with other species (Anderson et al. 2012).
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Tursiops-aduncus.html
- mammalwatching.com /wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Maldives-cetaceans-review-2012.pdf
- mrc.gov.mv /assets/Uploads/2005-Observations-of-cetaceans-in-the-Maldives-1990-20
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Tursiops_aduncus,_Port_River,_Adelaide,_Australia_-_2003.jp
Dhivehi name source: No Dhivehi name found in the cetacean literature reviewed (Anderson 2005; Anderson et al. 2012), FishBase/SeaLifeBase or Dhivehi Wikipedia.