The Bottlenose Dolphins average 9 feet in length and 600 pounds as adults and may live up to 45 years. The Bottlenose Dolphins which tends to live near the coasts are smaller than the ones that live deeper into the sea.

Dolphins are mammals that have become wonderfully adapted in living in the ocean. There body is so well streamlined that it eliminates friction and they can hold their breath for over 10 minutes if they have to. Bottlenose Dolphins can dive deeper than 1.700 feet.

The eyeball of the Dolphins are thicker so that they can cope with the high pressure in the deep water and speed an echolocation provides a detailed visual image that function day and night, in cloudy and clear water and over great distance.

It is worthwhile to mention that if and when you are on the island of Curacao, a visit to the Curacao Sea Aquarium is highly recommended as they have added the Bottlenose Dolphins to the Sea Aquarium family. We suggest you to visit our Whales Friends Store where you'll be able to buy attractive gift ideas for you or friends, such as Dolphins Bracelets, Dolphins Alarm Clock and much more.

The Dolphin is an air breathing mammal and belongs to the same cetacean family as the whale. The most common species found in Hawaii are the Spinner, Bottlenose and Spotted Dolphins. They are highly social and usually seen in groups of 100-300 anywhere along the entire Hawaiian chain.

The Dolphin has a large brain and possesses a great degree of intelligence. The species is highly adaptable to captivity and easily trained. Dolphins routinely make spectacular leaps out of the water. It is this feature that makes them popular attractions at oceanariums. In the wild, Dolphins are attracted to the waves created by moving boats and are often seen riding the bow waves of these boats.

Reproduction for the Dolphin is a slow process. Females give birth to a single calf, every two to three years. Their life span is 40 years.

Currently, the Dolphin is not an endangered species, but it is protected under the Marine Mammal Protective Act which makes it illegal to capture, kill, harass or hunt any marine mammal.

The diet of the Dolphin consists of a wide variety of small fish and squid.

The Bottlenose dolphins inhabit in temperature and tropical waters throughout the world and some places like the Pacific Ocean the bottlenose dolphins are found between Japan and California , from the coast they have been observed as far as Monterey, especially during the warmer periods, .and also from Australia to Chile. The Bottlenose Dolphins can be found also on the offshore of the Hawaiian islands. The Bottlenose Dolphins can be found also in the Atlantic Ocean from Nova Scotia and Norway to Patagonia and the tip of South Africa and they are numerous along the United States from the northern tip to the Gulf of Mexico and they are also found in the Mediterranean Sea, and in the Indian Ocean from Australia to South Africa. In the northwest Atlantic, there seem to be at least two (forms) of the bottlenose dolphin. These dolphins frequent harbors, bays and lagoons

A variations in water temperature, migration of food fish, and feeding habits may account for the seasonal movements of some dolphins to and from certain areas.

Some of the coastal dolphins in the northern latitudes show a tendency toward seasonal migrations, traveling south during the cold season and the ones living in the warmer waters show less seasonal movements.

The total quantity of bottlenose dolphins is unknown however some estimates have been made e.g. in the United States Gulf of Mexico, their numbers are estimated to be at least 67,000 and there are other estimates for the other areas of the world., such as in the waters of the western North Atlantic, the Mediterranean and others, It is also worthwhile to mention that Bottlenose dolphins are not endangered

The Bottlenose dolphins measured off Sarasota, Florida averaged 2.5 to 2.7 m (8.2-8.9 ft.) and weighed between 190 and 260 kg (419-573 lb.) (Read, et al., 1993).and the differences in body size may be related to habitat differences and there are also large Bottlenose Dolphins in the Pacific that may larger and weight more.

The average, full-grown males are longer than the females and heavier.

The color of a Bottlenose Dolphins is a kind of gray to gray-green/brown on the back and white on the belly, lower jaw, and anal regions it might look also a bit pink this is a type of camouflage known as counter-shading, and it may help to conceal.

The skillet is supported by connective tissue. Thick cartilage pads lie lengthwise between the bones. Pectoral flippers are curved slightly and pointed at the tips. Dolphins use their flippers mainly to steer and the flukes to help in stopping, the blood circulation in the flippers helps maintaining the body temperature. The arteries in the flippers are surrounded by veins, thus, some heat from the blood which go through the arteries is moved to the venous blood and this counter-current heat helps the dolphins in conserving body heat. To shed excess body heat, circulation increases in veins near the surface of the flippers and decreases in veins returning to the body. The lobe of the tail is called a fluke which are about 20% of the body total length and are flattened pads of tough, dense, fibrous connective tissue, completely without bone or muscle. The longitudinal muscles of the back and caudal peduncle move flukes up and down to move the dolphin through water. The arteries of the flippers and the arteries of the flukes are surrounded by veins to help conserve body heat in cold water.

The dorsal fin is made just like to flukes out of dense, fibrous connective tissue, with no bones and this fin may act as a keel and helps stabilize a dolphin as it swims, but is not necessarily essential to a dolphin's balance, the flukes and the flippers, arteries in the dorsal fin are surrounded by veins to help conserve body heat in cold water, the dorsal fin is often curved back, although the shape is quite variable and is located at the center of the back.

The bottlenose dolphin has a well-defined rostrum about 7 to8 cm long , the teeth are conical and interlocking and are designed for grasping and not chewing the food it interesting to know that the number of teeth varies a lot among each one and .by rule they have 20 to 25 teeth on each side of the upper jaw and 18 to 24 teeth on each side of the lower jaw to a total from 76 to 98 teeth..

The eyes are on the sides of the head, near the corners of the mouth and the glands at the inner corners of the eye sockets secrete an oily, jellylike mucus that lubricates the eyes, washes away debris, and probably helps streamline a dolphin's eye as it swims and it may also protect the eyes from infection

The ears are located just behind the eyes and are small inconspicuous openings, with no external flaps.

The dolphins have a single blowhole, located on the dorsal surface of the head and is covered by a muscular flap which provide a water-tight-seal and is used by the dolphin to breathe and is relaxed in a closed position and to open the blowhole, the bottlenose dolphin contracts the muscular flap.

Dolphins have a well-developed, acute sense of hearing, the auditory cortex of the brain is highly developed and the auditory nerve may have 67,900 or more cochlear fibers and is twice as many than in the human auditory nerve with this the Bottlenose dolphins respond to tones within the frequency range of 1 to 150 kHz which is a lot more the average hearing range of humans and the Bottlenose dolphins can detect sound frequencies of less than 1 kHz, if they are loud enough.

A dolphin may also receive sound through soft tissue and bone surrounding the ear and unlike humans, a dolphin's inner ear is encased in a separate bone, called the auditory bulla and is connected to the skull with fibrous tissue and is essentially isolated from the skull, the sound enters the ear most efficiently through the jaw and middle ear.

A fat-filled cavity in the lower jawbone appears to conduct sound waves through the jaw to bones in the middle ears. The lower jawbone of toothed whales broadens and is hollow at the base, where it hinges with the skull. Within this very thin, hollow bone is a fat deposit that extends back toward the auditory, the sounds are received and conducted through the lower jaw to the middle ear, inner ear, and then to hearing centers in the brain via the auditory nerve.

The dolphin ear probably allows it to localize sounds under water and the dolphin's middle ear cavity is filled with a highly vascular tissue. When a dolphin dives, this tissue helps adjust pressure on the middle ear. The Dolphins have small external ear openings, a few inches behind each eye. Each opening leads to a reduced ear canal and an eardrum.

The Dolphins have acute vision both in and out of the water. A dolphin's eye is particularly adapted for seeing in water, in air, certain features of the lens and cornea correct for the refraction of light caused by the transition from aquatic to aerial vision. Without this adaptation, a dolphin would be nearsighted in air. The retinas have two central areas that receive images and due to this feature of the retina, bottlenose dolphins have binocular vision in air, and may also have additional monocular vision under water

The dolphin's retinas contain both rod cells and cone cells, indicating that they may have the ability to see in both dim and bright light, the presence of cone cells suggests that dolphins may be able to see color The Dolphins' eyes have a well-developed a light-reflecting layer that reflects light through the retina a second time, giving them enhanced vision in dim light.

Studies and observations indicate that a bottlenose dolphin's sense of touch is well developed. And a bottlenose dolphin's skin appears to be sensitive to a broad range of tactile sensations

Bottlenose dolphins are gregarious and, at least in some near-shore
societies, appear to stay together for life. Females come to sexual maturity
after 5 to 12 years, and males after 9 to 13 years. There is some evidence
for polygamous mating, in which there is no overt aggressive competition by
either males or females for access to mates. After a gestation period of
about 12 months, a single calf is born. Calves nurse for up to 18 months.
The dolphins communicate by means of a rich repertoire of whistles and
rasping sounds and, in at least some populations, individuals appear to have
a signature whistle. Bottlenose dolphins are able to discriminate even small
objects by echolocation-that is, they send out high frequency clicks that
bounce off prey and other objects and use the returning echoes to
distinguish the objects. For this reason most studies of echolocation in
dolphins have used bottlenose dolphins as subjects.

Bottlenose dolphins are often considered the most adaptable of the cetaceans
because they live amid industrial activity around harbors and ship channels
in many parts of the world. They have recently become the subject of dolphin
watching and other tourist activities, and they are the most commonly kept
dolphins in zoos and marine aquaria. Bottlenose dolphins have been hunted
for meat, fertilizer, and oil, but their numbers do not appear to have been
significantly reduced except in the Black Sea, where pollution and
over-fishing of the dolphin's prey have caused as much damage to them as
direct killing.