Essay, Research Paper: Bottlenose Dolphins

Bottlenose Dolphins

The Bottlenose Dolphins Live in Fiordland New Zealand. It is a spectacular environment where it snows all winter and sometimes part of the fiord freezes over. The sides of the fiord are like big pillars of rock reaching way out into the sky. The fiord also consists of great number of wild life including Flora, Fauna, Seals, Penguins, Crayfish, and some types of Sharks.

Bottlenose Dolphins live in-groups called pods usually the pod increases in size with water depth and with of their habitat. The Dolphins appear to have strong social bonds with each other and still remember each other after long periods of time unlike other animals. Mother-calf bonds are very strong and the calf spends most of its life with its mother until it's about four. Bottlenose Dolphins establish and maintain dominance by biting one and each other. Some dolphins are seen riding the waves on the side of the boat and the wakes from the back of the boat.

Bottlenose Dolphins feeding is very adaptable as long as there is large food source.
Dolphins do not chew their food they swallow their food whole, so the bones don't get stuck in their they usually swing and rub the fish on the ocean floor. To catch larger fish sometimes the Bottlenose Dolphins use their tail fins to flick the fish out of the water and then catch the stun fish in its mouth. Sometimes a group of dolphins herd a school of fish against a sandbar or the shore.

Bottlenose Dolphins can produce sounds for two overlapping functions: communicating and navigating. Toothed whales can communicate and navigate at the same time. Bottlenose Dolphins produce sounds and clicks, which resemble moans, grunts, squeaks, and creaking noises. The sounds that the dolphins make vary in volume, wavelength, frequency, and pattern.
Bottlenose Dolphins usually identify themselves with a sound that they have made usually it is a sort of whistle sound.

On the tape the researcher used cameras and special equipment to find and hear the dolphins when they moved around the fiord. He used the equipment the most when the dolphins went from fresh water to salt and into the open sea as it was very hard to find the dolphins in that part of the sea. He also took pictures of the dorsal fin of the dolphins to see who they were and tell them apart.