Peale's dolphin

How it lives

Adults have a dark grey face and chin, a black back with off-white stripes, a white belly, pale patches behind the flippers and a large, curved dorsal fin. Groups are usually about five, sometimes up to 20. In the 2017 Falklands aerial survey the average group was 4.47 dolphins (range 1 to 21). In a December 2021 study in the Strait of Magellan, groups were 1 to 5 animals, often with juveniles, and 88% of observed events were slow travel. This is a poorly studied species because much of its range is remote and stormy.

Where it goes

Peale's dolphin lives only in the coastal waters of southern South America, from Valdivia in Chile (about 38°S) around Tierra del Fuego to Argentina, and around the Falkland Islands. In the Falklands, surveys in 2017 to 2019 recorded the species in every survey month. Models suggest they use open, exposed water, with similar densities from about 4 to 25 km offshore, while Commerson's dolphins stay closer to the coast. In the Falklands they were found mostly off the southern and north-western coasts.

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

The IUCN lists Peale's dolphin as Least Concern (2019), under its old name Lagenorhynchus australis. CMS has listed it on Appendix II since 1991. A 2017 aerial survey of inshore Falklands waters, flown by SAERI, estimated 1,896 dolphins (CV 0.33), and the team notes this is likely an underestimate because availability bias was not yet included. One estimate for the South Atlantic part of the range is about 21,800. Past threats include hunting for crab bait in the 1970s and 1980s, and entanglement in gill nets is still a concern. Shipping, aquaculture and coastal development are raised as concerns in the Strait of Magellan.