Pantropical spotted dolphin

How it lives

Pantropical spotted dolphins spend the day in water about 90 to 300 m deep and dive deeper at night to feed on squid and fish. They often travel with other species, such as spinner dolphins, rough-toothed dolphins and short-finned pilot whales. Pregnancy lasts about 11 months, calves usually nurse for about 2 years, and a female has a calf every 2.5 to 4 years.

Where it goes

Exact migration routes are not known. In some areas they seem to move closer to shore in autumn and winter and farther offshore in spring. Around Hawai'i, some groups stay near particular islands.

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 two subspecies: an offshore form found in warm seas worldwide, often lightly spotted, and a larger, heavily spotted coastal form along the tropical eastern Pacific shore. In the eastern tropical Pacific, one offshore stock is still listed as depleted in the US after decades of deaths in tuna nets, though the species is Least Concern worldwide. Hawai'i has its own island-associated groups.