Stenella longirostris

The very first printed mention of spinner dolphin made an appearance in 1769. The Benedictine monk Dom Antoine-Frederick Pernety sighted a college of countless hundred unusual dolphins off West Africa during a voyage towards the Falkland Islands within the South Atlantic. The dolphins “sprang from the water within an remarkable manner.” They “hopped a minimum of 3 or 4 ft high and switched round not under three occasions in mid-air, as though they were on the spit.” Just the spinner dolphin continues to be seen to spin several occasions in mid-air such as this within the wild (W. F. Perrin and James Gilpatrick, Junior.). SHORT-SNOUTED SPINNER Little is famous concerning the short-snouted Atlantic spinner. It varies from the Gulf towards the Caribbean, and in the mid-Atlantic towards the northwest coast of Africa. Its length is 7 ft (2 m), and it is weight is 200 pounds (90 kg). Its flippers are small , pointed in the tips, and it is dorsal fin is curved and nearly pointed, and it is located in the center of the rear. Its color is dark grey around the torso, having a light grey area in the eyes alongside towards the tail its belly is white-colored. It eats small fish and squid, and can be found in small herds in very deep water. Lengthy-SNOUTED SPINNER The known Off-shore types of this species range from the Costa Rican, the eastern, the whitebelly, the Hawai’ian (Gray’s), along with a dwarf form based in the Gulf of Thailand. They’re differentiated by size — varying from 5.five to six ft (1.65 to at least one.8 m) for that eastern spinner, to 7 ft (2m) for that Costa Rican spinner by weight — from 135 pounds (61 kg) for that eastern, to 200 pounds (91 kg) for that Hawai’ian by variations fit and markings. The Hawai’ian form appears to become typical for that species elsewhere within the range such as the Indian and Atlantic oceans.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Your body size, shape, and color patterns of the several forms differ based on physical location. Spinners generally all share common characteristics: their physiques are slender, their beaks are lengthy and thin (aside from the Atlantic short-snouted spinner) as well as their flippers are small , pointed in the tips. Their coloring is within shades of dark grey, light grey, and white-colored most forms have white-colored bellies.

FEEDING

The spinner dolphin’s diet includes small fish and squid. Spinners convey more teeth than other types of dolphins, with between 45 to 65 sharp, pointed teeth in every side of both lower and upper jaws. They feed during the night.

MATING AND BREEDING

Females achieve sexual maturity at approximately 4 to many years, males at approximately seven to ten years. A baby calf averages 32 inches (80 cm) long. The pregnancy period is 10 1/2 several weeks, and also the calving interval is between two to three years. Calves nurse for from one to two years.

DISTRIBUTION AND MIGRATION

The Costa Rican spinner can be found in large, close-knit categories of 1,000 or even more creatures in seaside waters under 90 miles (150 km) from the western coast of Guatemala the eastern spinner is really a more oceanic species present in deep water from the coast of Mexico and also the west coast of Guatemala, frequently travelling in large herds of thousands or even more, sometimes in the organization of spotted dolphins the whitebelly spinner is shipped even more offshore from Mexico, Guatemala, and also the Off-shore region of northern South Usa, travelling in herds of just one,000 or even more the Hawai’ian spinner is typical through the Hawai’ian Islands and congregates in herds of 200 or even more.

NATURAL HISTORY

Spinner dolphins frequently travel in the organization of other species, like the spotted dolphin and, in Hawai’i, humpback whales. Within the eastern tropical Off-shore, spinner dolphins go swimming with yellowfin tuna, a connection which has brought towards the slaughter of thousands and thousands of spinners within the purse-seine tuna fishery. Known predators are sharks, killer whales, and perhaps false killer whales, pygmy killer whales, and pilot whales.

STATUS

Whitebelly and eastern spinner dolphins within the eastern tropical Off-shore have endured enormous population losses because of entanglement within the nets of tuna fishermen. For any reason not known, they go swimming in herds above schools of yellowfin tuna. Rather of searching for tuna, the fishermen search for dolphins once they locate them, they encompass the herd with large nets known as “purse seine” nets, recording the dolphins combined with the tuna. It’s thought that the stock has declined up to 80% because the 1960s, when purse seining operations started. Spinner dolphins prosper in captivity, and also have been displayed in Hawai’i and elsewhere within the U.S. Indonesia, the Philippines, and Hong Kong.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Balcomb, K. and S. Minasian. 1984. The Earth’s Whales. Smithsonian Books. W. W. Norton, New You are able to.
• Ellis, R. 1980. Dolphins and Porpoises. Alfred A. Knopf, New You are able to.
• Norris, K.S. B. Wrsig, R.S. Wells, and M. Wrsig. 1994. The Hawaiian Spinner Dolphin, College of California Press. Berkeley, CA. 408 pp.
• Perrin, William F. and James W. Gilpatrick, Junior. ‘Spinner Dolphin’ Stenella longirostris.
• Perrin, W.F. 2002. Spinner Dolphin. In Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, erectile dysfunction. By W.F.
• Perrin, B. Wrsig, and J.G.M. Thewissen, Academic Press, North Park, CA. Pp. 1174-1178. Perrin, W.F. and J.W. Gilpatrick, Junior. 1994. Spinner dolphin, Stenella longirostris (Grey 1828). In Guide of Marine Mammals, Vol. 5, erectile dysfunction. By S.H. Ridgway and R. Harrison, Academic Press, London, pp. 99-128.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

• Illustrations courtesy Uko Gorter, 2002, 2006 all legal rights reserved.

FACT SHEETS Might Be REPRINTED FOR EDUCATIONAL OR SCIENTIFIC PURPOSES