| 1. |
Bottlenose
dolphins live in groups called pods. The size of a pod varies from
about 2 to 15 individuals. Several pods may join temporarily to form
larger groups called herds or aggregations. Up to several hundred
animals have been observed traveling in one herd. |
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| 2. |
Dolphins
frequently ride the bow wake or the stern wake of boats. They have
been seen jumping as high as 4.9 m (16 ft.) up from the surface of
the water and landing on their backs or sides, in a behavior called
a breach. |
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| 3. |
Both
young and old dolphins chase one another, carry objects around, toss
seaweed to one another, and use objects to invite each other to interact.
Such activity may be practice for catching food. |
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| 4. |
Bottlenose
dolphins often cooperate when hunting and catching fish. In open waters,
a dolphin pod sometimes encircles a large school of fish and herds
them into a tight ball for easy feeding. Then the dolphins take turns
charging through the school to feed. Occasionally dolphins will herd
fish to shallow water where they are easy prey. |
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| 5. |
Bottlenose
dolphins generally do not need to dive very deeply to catch food.
Depending on habitat, most bottlenose dolphins regularly dive to depths
of 3 to 45.7 m (10-150 ft.). They are, however, capable of diving
to some depth. Under experimental conditions, a trained dolphin dove
547 m (1,795 ft.). |
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