Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Know About The Different Types Of Dolphins In The Ocean

Dolphin is a kind of very lovely marine animal, and there are many types of dolphinsin the ocean. Most people automatically think when they see a dolphin that it is a Bottlenose dolphin, that’s not true. Different types of dolphins swim through the ocean and knowing these facts will help you recognize the type of dolphin it is when you spot one. These mammals are beautiful and very interesting to watch. Read the quick facts below about the different types of dolphins to learn more.

The Bottlenose dolphin is one of the prettiest and smartest dolphins in the sea. These are the dolphins you see at Sea World and in movies all the time. They reach 10 – 14 feet in length and grow up to weigh 900 – 1,100 pounds. They are very smart and social animals and are bluish-gray in color.


 The Baiji dolphin is known as the “River Dolphin” because it lives in the rivers of China. It is believed that the dolphin appeared about 25 million years ago. These dolphins would reach about 8 feet in length and up to 500 pounds for males and 350 pounds for females. These dolphins are bluish-gray and have a flexible neck with a long snout. Due to propeller strikes, pollution, human catching and other problems, these dolphins were declared extinct as of last year, but it is believed there are still a few left.

The Black dolphins are also known as the “Chilean Dolphins” because they are located in the coastal waters and river areas of Chile. They grow up to about 5 – 6 feet in length and about 130 – 150 pounds in weight. Out of all the different types of dolphins, this is one of the smallest ones. These dolphins are gray with light color variations on their ventral fin. The Black dolphins dorsal fin and flippers are actually round in shape.

There are many different types of dolphins as you can see and some are similar to others. The Clymene dolphin is very similar to the Spinner dolphin. It is very small in size but has a rather long beak. The dolphin has a white belly with dark gray lines on its’ beaks. These dolphins are deep diving dolphins, meaning they are hardly ever seen at the surface of the water. They are anywhere from 520 feet to 16,400 feet below the surface. They are found in the Atlantic ocean in tropical and sub-tropical waters.

The Hector dolphin is one of the smallest out of all the types of dolphins. If you get the pleasure of spotting one of these, you are very lucky. This particular species is very rare and hardly ever seen. It is one of the smallest only reaching about 3 feet when fully grown. The females do tend to be longer than the males though. These dolphins are brown, gray, black, and white and have markings that are black and white. The Hector dolphin is often called a ‘Torpedo’ because of the shape of its body. It likes to live in muddy swallow water and is found on the coast of New Zealand. The New Zealand coast is actually the only place in the world you can find the Hector dolphin.