Atlantic Spotted Dolphin

Like all dolphins they belong to the toothed whales. Their colours exist in 3 patterns: white belly, light grey sides and dark grey back. The spots on the back are white and on their sides and belly they are grey. Look at the photo and you’ll see young’s are born without spots and with age they develop more and more. At their young stage it’s easy to mistake young spotted dolphins with bottlenose dolphins.

Traditional Madeiran name: Toninha or Antoninha

Measurements at birth 35 till 43” (90 – 110 cm), male adult 7’ 5’’ (2,26 m) with a weight around 310 lb (140kg), female adult 7’6” (2,29 m) with a weight around 290 lb (130 kg)

Range and habitat: Like the name says the Atlantic spotted dolphins are only found in the tropical and warm temperate Atlantic Ocean between the latitudes of 20º south and 45º north. They occur near the coast but as often frequent the open sea.

Reproduction: The calving interval is between 3 and 4 years and females nurse their babies for at least this period of time.

Behaviour: They are willing bow riders (see one of our little videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rCEBaoidSw) and like to show their acrobatics with pleasure. Scientists estimate that they live in pots of around 50 animals, but we see them often in much bigger groups of 100 individuals, sometimes lot’s of hundreds.

Food and foraging: They prey on small schooling fish, like mackerels or sardines, and they love cephalopods like squid.

Threats: Few is known exactly about the threats they face, but like all the dolphins they have to face more pollution, which may weaken their immune system, face habitat degradation, overkilling and other fishery conflicts.

Our experiences: The Atlantic Spotted Dolphins are very active and funny animals. They like to leap, to play, to bow-ride and they use to occur in quiet big pots here in our waters. We can see the spotted dolphins all around the year but with more frequency in spring and summer time.

Fact file compiled by Claudia Gomes from Lobosonda LDA

To book a whale and dolphin watching trip click here www.lobosonda.com
Trips are from Calheta Marina