Commerson's Dolphin

• GeneralBlack and white like a miniature orca; it measures a little over 1.4 m.
• It has two populations separated by some 8,500 kilometres of open ocean: one in Atlantic Patagonia and one in the Kerguelen Islands, in the middle of the subantarctic Indian Ocean, and the animals of each differ clearly in size and colour.
• The calves are born grey and brown and only take on the black-and-white contrast of the adults after a few months.
• Its strongly marked black-and-white pattern has earned it the names of panda dolphin and skunk dolphin; in South America it is known as the tonina overa.
• It has two subspecies separated by 130 degrees of longitude and some 8,500 km, and nobody knows why: one at the tip of South America and another in the Kerguelen Islands, in the Indian Ocean. The Kerguelen one is larger, with less contrasting grey tones.
• It is one of the smallest dolphins in the world: it does not exceed 1.7 m.
• It seeks out areas of strong current. In the Strait of Magellan it prefers waters running faster than 15 km/h.
• It swims inside and along the edge of the kelp forests, just like Peale's dolphin, with which it shares its range.
• A 2022 study found that females are philopatric and males are the ones that disperse, a pattern that explains the genetic structure of its populations.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)

Habitat and environment

Cold coastal waters, bays, estuaries and areas of strong current in the South Atlantic

Sexual maturity

5.5 years

Gestation / incubation

11.5 months

Litter / clutch size

1

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalorhynchus_commersonii

The pins mark the parks and dive sites where its presence is documented.