You’d probably be unaware as to what do bottlenose dolphins eat mainly because you’re not a biologist or a conservationist. However, you don’t need to be either of these as I’m going to share some amazing facts about the bottlenose dolphins diet. These dolphins are adept to live in cold waters and they are normally found in deep sea waters and almost 20% of their bodyweight is blubber.
Mostly, the research has been carried out in the North Atlantic Ocean. These types of dolphins are capable to swim at a speed of about 5 – 11 km/h (1.4 9 3.1 mps), within short bursts of 29 to 35 km/h (8.1 to 9.7 mps).
Bottlenose dolphins are best known for their exceptional eyesight and their eyes are affixed at the head-sides and at the back of the retina which supports them to visualize things even in low-light conditions.
However, as far as the smelling sense is concerned, bottlenose dolphins have poor sense possibly due to its blowholes which is closed while the dolphin is underwater and it only opens when it comes to the surface for breathing. Bottlenose dolphins lack olfactory nerves as well as olfactory lobe in their brain. These dolphins, however, can identify sweet, bitter, and saltish taste.
Read More: What do Bottlenose Dolphins Look Like?
What Do Bottlenose Dolphins Eat
Dolphins living in captivity are rather more adept to eat fish preferably. These dolphins go out in search of food with the help of echolocation which means they identify objects by generating sounds for the echos. To listen to the returning echo, dolphins have two small ear openings at the back of their eyes, but the majority of the sound waves are passed on to the inner ear all through the lower jaw.
Read More: What do Bottlenose Dolphins Eat?
The dolphins are capable to adjust the intensity of the produced sounds according to the loudness of the echo which means the object is nearby. These mammals communicate with the help of whistles, sounds and other body languages. These gestures warn other dolphins from the nearby predator.
You might be wondering what do bottlenose dolphins eat. In general, they prefer to eat fish, squid, and crustaceans. The diet mainly depends on the particular location but the common food includes mullet, tuna and mackerel, and drum and croacker. The cone-like teeth of bottlenose dolphin enable it to chew up the food properly. Whenever dolphins hunt a shoal of fish, they tend to cooperate with each other as a team and attempts to maximize the harvest. However, bottlenose dolphins also hunt alone. They employ several hunting techniques such including they tend to circle around the shoal of fish while beating its tail down to create dusts thereby offering zero visibility to the victims. Those fish that attempts to get out of the circle fall directly into the dolphins’ mouth. Some other common methods are ‘Strand Feeding’ and ‘Fish Whacking’. These are mostly observed in Georgia and South Carolina.
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