Other Whales

Bottlenose Dolphin

Bottlenose dolphins are in fact, scientifically classified as a toothed whale, along with Sperm whales, Pilot whales and Killer whales. The major difference being, that the Bottlenose dolphin is a lot smaller than the whales listed above. You may even be surprised to hear that there is actually another species of toothed whale which is much larger than the Bottlenose dolphin and it is called a Bottlenose whale.

The features that distinguish toothed whales from baleen whales like Humpbacks and Southern Rights, is that toothed whales are generally smaller, with the exception of Sperm whales. All toothed whales have a single blowhole - instead of two, as in the case of baleen whales. Unlike sharks teeth that are used to cut, saw and tear at flesh, the teeth of Bottlenose dolphins are round and blunt, and are primarily used to grab their prey. Even so, dolphins do use their teeth aggressively and when they fight, they bite each other. Evidence of these bites can be seen all over the animal's bodies and they are called 'rake' marks.

Bottlenose dolphins have between 40 - 52 teeth in their upper jaw and 36 - 48 in the lower jaw. They swallow their prey whole, therefore their teeth are relatively small, conical in shape and not very sharp. Dolphin’s teeth have growth rings inside them and this can be used to work out their age, similar to how trees are aged. The inset photo is a dolphins tooth taken out during an autopsy. The researchers will cut the tooth in half vertically and will be able to count the rings inside to determine the animals age.

Dolphins can be aggressive and like many animals fight each other to establish dominance in the social group. This occurs mainly with adult males. They will ram each other, hit with their tails & bite each other. This is a close up of the tail stock of a large male. You can see the fresh bite marks from another dolphin. If you look closely at the photograph you can see that the tailstock is latticed with scars from many previous encounters.

Bottlenose dolphins are strong, robust animals growing up to lengths of approximately 4 metres and weighing up to 200 kilograms. They are renowned for their amazing physical attributes and their super senses. Their main 'super sense' is their ability to echolocate. Using a built in biological sonar, dolphins send out sound waves into the ocean, the sound waves hit objects and bounce back, being received by the lower jaw and focused back to the middle ear and then the brain which forms a 'sound picture' of the dolphin's environment. This amazing sense helps dolphins navigate, it helps them to locate predators, they can see their environment at night, they use it to hunt prey and they can even stun fish into submission by blasting them with bursts of their sonar - making them easier to catch.

Bottlenose dolphins are excellent hunters. They are fast, have amazing maneuverability, incredible eyesight and they use their biological sonar called echolocation to zap the fish with intense burst of sound. Dolphins are also known to hunt co-operatively, working together to round fish up into a manageable school, making them easier to catch.

Dolphins also have highly developed eye sight and can see as well above water as they can underwater. Dolphins are fast swimmers and can reach speeds of up to 30 kilometres an hour. They can stay submerged for up to 20 minutes and have been recorded diving as deep as 600 metres. They can do this because they have a specially designed rib cage that collapses when they dive, their lungs also compress to a smaller size and they can store oxygen in their muscles.

Like all other cetaceans, dolphins spy hop and they can be seen doing it quite regularly. They have excellent eyesight above water and sometimes they do this to have a look around to see if birds are feeding or they do it just for a general inquisitive look around.

Bottlenose dolphins eat a variety of sea food. When they catch a fish, they do not chew it, but instead, swallow it head first, whole. In this picture the dolphin has captured a rather large octopus. Before the dolphin eats the octopus, it violently throws it around on the surface of the ocean. This could be to kill the animal before it swallows it, or to break it up into pieces and make it easier to swallow.

Bow riding is what dolphins are famous for and all around the world they can be seen powering through the water at the front of ships or boats. But, perhaps it should be called 'bow surfing', as the animals are actually riding the pressure wave underwater, caused by the vessel pushing through the water.

Their tail is their powerhouse and some dolphins can swim at speeds of up to 35 kilometres an hour. The dolphin in this photo is speeding towards another group that are feeding to join in on the hunt.

Male adult Bottlenose dolphins can form special friendships with other males that bond them together for life. The dolphins will travel together, hunt together and fight other dolphins together. Researchers call these friendships alliances. Males also use alliances to mate with females.

Dolphin Interactive 3D

If you would like to learn a little bit more about dolphins, we are developing an interactive website called Dolphin Interactive 3D. The concept of the website is to have an interactive experience where you will be transported inside a virtual dolphin & be able to explore its amazing biology and physiology. There will also be live footage, detailed three dimensional animations, digital stills and a copy of the production script for each segment. And in the finished website you will be able to use all this content with a mash up tool to create your own dolphin films that you can keep and share with your friends.

Click here to go to the demonstration site. After you have had a look go to the Contact Us page on the Whale Patrol site and let us know what you think of the concept. We are interested in any ideas or suggestions that you have that will help us shape the idea.