Distribution Of Dolphins Essay

Common Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), are found in mostly temperate and tropical marine waters throughout the world. Temperature plays a role in the distribution of dolphins, also due to distribution of prey. In North American they typically inhabit water temperatures from 10C to 32C. In the western North Atlantic, at the northern limits bottlenose dolphin ' range, they are seasonally migratory and are more southerly distributed in the winter. They are found as far north as the Kuril Islands, southern Okhotsk Sea and central California, in the North Pacific. During the summer months they can be seen inshore off New England, off shore as far north as Nova Scotia, in the North Atlantic. They are found as far south as Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. (Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals)
Female dolphins can live to be more than 57 years old and male up to 48 years old. Calves grow most during the first two years of life, while suckling. Females usually reach sexually maturity before males. Sexually maturity varies with the distribution of dolphins, although females tend to reach sexual maturity between five and thirteen while in males it occurs between nine and fourteen. Females ovulate repeatedly during a season, while males tend to be active …show more content…
Dolphins have peg-like teeth, as an adaption for feeding of squid dolphins have evolve a secondary reduction in the number of teeth. Most of the fish in their diets are bottom dwellers but some surface dwelling fish represent in their diet as well. A large part of their diet is noise producing fish, thought to be due to dolphins using sound to locate prey. In some cases, groups of dolphins will feed in different areas, calves and their mothers feeding near shore, adolescents feeding farther from shore and other females and adult males feeding furthest offshore. (Encyclopedia of Marine