Bottlenose Dolphin Facts | Baja Wildlife Guide
Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncates) are frequently seen off the coast of Baja during whale watching excursions. Over a 50-year lifespan they can grow to be 12 feet long and weigh more than 1,200 pounds.
Bottlenose dolphins are highly social animals. Nearshore, they congregate in small groups of approximately 10, but offshore they sometimes gather in pods of up to 100 individuals. The limbic system in their brains, the area that processes emotions, is more complex than in the human brain, and it is believed that social interactions are critical to their emotional wellbeing.
When feeding in shallow waters, they engage in cooperative feeding, where the leader will use its tail to create a “net” of sediment to encircle a school of fish. When the fish start leaping to escape the temporary enclosure, the rest of the dolphins will move in and snatch the fish out of the air.
These dolphins are also known for having individual “signature” whistles. Each dolphin develops a unique whistle by the time they are a year old that remains relatively constant throughout their lifetime. This not only allows companions to find each other when they are not in visual contact, they can also use each other’s signature whistles to address a specific dolphin.
Scientists are just beginning to understand the depth and extent of dolphin intelligence. Their brain-to-body ratio is second only to humans, and the complexity of their brains, indicated by the amount of folding in the cortex, exceeds ours. They have an abundance of “spindle cells” which guide reasoning, communicating and problem solving, and they are able to recognize themselves in a mirror at seven months of age – five months earlier on average than human babies can.
It is impossible to say whether humans or dolphins are “smarter,” because the skills needed to succeed in each of our environments are so different. However, when you see a bottlenose dolphin playing in the bow wake from a boat, perfectly in sync with its companions, living in balance with its surroundings, it’s hard not to feel a bit of envy.
Bottlenose dolphins are highly social animals. Nearshore, they congregate in small groups of approximately 10, but offshore they sometimes gather in pods of up to 100 individuals. The limbic system in their brains, the area that processes emotions, is more complex than in the human brain, and it is believed that social interactions are critical to their emotional wellbeing.
When feeding in shallow waters, they engage in cooperative feeding, where the leader will use its tail to create a “net” of sediment to encircle a school of fish. When the fish start leaping to escape the temporary enclosure, the rest of the dolphins will move in and snatch the fish out of the air.
These dolphins are also known for having individual “signature” whistles. Each dolphin develops a unique whistle by the time they are a year old that remains relatively constant throughout their lifetime. This not only allows companions to find each other when they are not in visual contact, they can also use each other’s signature whistles to address a specific dolphin.
Scientists are just beginning to understand the depth and extent of dolphin intelligence. Their brain-to-body ratio is second only to humans, and the complexity of their brains, indicated by the amount of folding in the cortex, exceeds ours. They have an abundance of “spindle cells” which guide reasoning, communicating and problem solving, and they are able to recognize themselves in a mirror at seven months of age – five months earlier on average than human babies can.
It is impossible to say whether humans or dolphins are “smarter,” because the skills needed to succeed in each of our environments are so different. However, when you see a bottlenose dolphin playing in the bow wake from a boat, perfectly in sync with its companions, living in balance with its surroundings, it’s hard not to feel a bit of envy.
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Know Before You Go
