Comparing Harbour Porpoise And The Bottlenose Dolphin

Many people confuse porpoises with dolphins but they are actually different animals. They both are Cetaceans and have similar shapes but that’s about as far as their similarities go. The most confused species of porpoise and dolphin are the Harbour Porpoise and the Bottlenose Dolphin found in Britain’s seas. This is because from far away they look similar, but if you actually look at the two of them you would see they are very different. For the sake of simplicity, one can compare the differences between just the Harbour Porpoise and the Bottlenose Dolphin to show just how much of a difference there is between porpoises and dolphins. The Harbour Porpoise is a very small and secluded animal. They usually grow to only about 1.5m to 1.7m and can be found in groups of only 1 to 6, but are usually independent. Almost never approach boats, instead attempting to avoid them, shows how shy they really are. Their shyness is also shown by how people almost never seen more than their small dorsal fin breaking the water. They also usually hunt for food independently. Their very shy nature and very small shape causes them to be very different from the Bottlenose Dolphin (Dunn, Harrop, Still 88). …show more content…
They can grow to 1.9m to 3.9m, a much larger size than the Harbour Porpoise. Also unlike the Harbour Porpoise, they can be found in groups of 1 to 50, but are usually in groups of 5 to 25. Their friendliness is shown by how they “frequently breach, lob-tail and body-surf, as well as ride the bow-wave or wake of boats.”, very much unlike the Harbour Porpoise’s secluded nature. The Bottlenose Dolphin is also much more aggressive than the Harbour Porpoise to the point where there have been cases of Bottlenose Dolphins killing Harbour Porpoises. The Bottlenose’s large size and outgoing nature are great examples how different they are from the Harbour Porpoise (Dunn, Harrop, Still