Mammals · Artiodactyla · Delphinidae

Pantropical Spotted Dolphin

Stenella attenuata

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The pantropical spotted dolphin is one of the most abundant cetaceans in the world. Like the Atlantic spotted dolphin it is born plain and acquires its spots with age. It is fast, highly acrobatic and forms groups that can gather hundreds or thousands of animals. In the eastern tropical Pacific it swims in association with yellowfin tuna shoals, an association that cost millions of animals their lives in tuna purse seines between the 1950s and the 1980s.

Weight

90 kg – 120 kg

Size

1.6 m – 2.6 m

Lifespan

40 years

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

OceanCarnivore Ocean Mammal

57countries 13parks 16dive sites17same family

Fun facts

Purse-seine tuna fishing killed several million of these dolphins in the eastern tropical Pacific: the boats located the tuna shoals by following the dolphins and encircled both. Release techniques and observer programmes cut that mortality drastically and gave rise to dolphin safe tuna labelling.
Some of its eastern Pacific populations have still not fully recovered decades after the mass mortality ended, an example of how slowly a late-breeding animal bounces back.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)
Habitat & environment: Deep tropical and subtropical waters of every ocean, above all in the eastern Pacific
Sexual maturity: 8.2 years
Gestation / incubation: 11.3 months
Litter / clutch size: 1

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