Animal · United States, Australia, United Kingdom
Bottlenose dolphin
Tursiops truncatus — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The bottlenose dolphin is one of the most familiar and intelligent ocean animals, recognised by its curved mouth that looks like a permanent smile. It lives in coastal and offshore waters worldwide.
Picture credit: Cloudette-90 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · A.Baihaqi (CC BY-SA 4.0) · NASA (Public domain) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the bottlenose dolphin live?
Home: Coastal and offshore waters worldwide.
In the wild you find it in: United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Japan.
Conservation status from the IUCN: not in danger.
The short profile
Fully grown it measures 2–4 m long. It weighs about 300 kilograms. On the menu: meat.
The story behind it
Bottlenose dolphins are remarkably intelligent, using echolocation clicks to 'see' with sound, recognising objects, other dolphins and even their own reflection in a mirror, a rare sign of self-awareness in animals. Each dolphin develops its own unique whistle, similar to a name, which it uses to identify itself and call out to others in its group. Dolphins live in flexible social groups called pods and are known to cooperate in hunting, sometimes herding fish into tight balls or even working alongside human fishers who signal where fish are hiding. Calves stay close to their mothers for several years, learning hunting skills and social behaviour. Bottlenose dolphins remain widespread and common, though pollution and fishing nets still threaten some coastal populations.
Find it on the globe
Bottlenose dolphin is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Are bottlenose dolphins intelligent?
Yes, bottlenose dolphins are among the most intelligent animals known, able to recognise themselves in mirrors, solve problems, use tools and cooperate in complex ways. This level of self-awareness is rare outside humans and a few other species.
Do dolphins have names for each other?
In a sense, yes. Each bottlenose dolphin develops its own unique signature whistle early in life, which works much like a name, helping it identify itself and stay in contact with other dolphins in its group.
How do dolphins find food underwater?
Bottlenose dolphins use echolocation, sending out clicking sounds and listening to the echoes that bounce back off fish and other objects. This lets them 'see' with sound, even in murky or dark water.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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