Names of their own
Each dolphin has its own whistle, and others use it to call that dolphin, like a name.
Open ocean
Bottlenose dolphin
Tursiops truncatus
A sleek grey dolphin with a short beak, a curved fin on its back and what looks like a smile.
- Size
- About 2.5 to 4m long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Warm and cool seas all round the world, including Britain's
Races after you, weaving from side to side. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Dolphin
Good to know
Six things about the dolphin
Half asleep
A dolphin rests one half of its brain at a time, so it can keep swimming and breathing.
Seeing with sound
It sends out clicks and listens to the echoes, to find fish it cannot see.
Working together
Dolphins herd fish into a tight ball, or onto a mud bank, and take turns to feed.
Surfers
Dolphins ride the waves in front of ships and surf breakers near the shore, apparently for fun.
British dolphins
The bottlenose dolphins of the Moray Firth in Scotland are the biggest in the world, to cope with the cold.
The real thing
Photos of the dolphin
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Chanonry Point on the Moray Firth and Cardigan Bay in Wales are two of the best places in Europe to watch dolphins from the shore.
How to help
Give dolphins space: boats that chase them stop them feeding and resting. Choose a wildlife boat trip signed up to the WiSe code.
Keep going