No photo available
Common bottlenose dolphin
Tursiops truncatus
Valid name.
- English
- Common bottlenose dolphin
- Scientific
- Tursiops truncatus
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Dolphins
- Maximum size
- Up to about 3.8 m (offshore animals are larger than coastal ones)
- Depth and habitat
- Mainly outside the atolls in oceanic waters
- IUCN status
- LC · Least ConcernLeast Concern (LC), assessed 2019
Description
A large, robust grey dolphin with a short, stubby beak, a distinct crease between beak and forehead and a tall, curved dorsal fin. It is highly social and adaptable, feeding on a wide range of fish and squid with a variety of hunting techniques. It often bow-rides boats and leaps clear of the water. It is the best-studied of all dolphins.
In the Maldives
In the Maldives the common bottlenose is commoner outside the atolls, in larger groups that often mix with other species (Anderson et al. 2012).
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Tursiops-truncatus.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_truncatus_01-cropped.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No Dhivehi name found in the cetacean literature reviewed (Anderson 2005; Anderson et al. 2012), FishBase/SeaLifeBase or Dhivehi Wikipedia.