Common dolphin

How it lives

Common dolphins usually rest by day and feed at night on schooling fish and squid, typically diving to about 30 m, with dives to about 300 m reported. They live in large groups, often hundreds strong, and sometimes form huge groups of up to about 10,000, built from smaller groups of 20 to 30. After 10 to 11 months of pregnancy, females have a calf about every 2 to 3 years.

Where it goes

Short-beaked common dolphins mostly live offshore, over slopes, ridges and seamounts, while long-beaked animals stay closer to the coast. Where they gather changes with the season and ocean conditions, and calving seasons also differ by region.

We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.

Populations

There are short-beaked and long-beaked forms, now mostly treated as one species, although US managers still list the long-beaked form separately. Long beaks evolved separately in several coastal populations. The species is Least Concern worldwide, but inner Mediterranean common dolphins are Endangered, those in the Gulf of Corinth are Critically Endangered, and the Black Sea subspecies is Vulnerable.