Long-nosed common dolphin
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Long-nosed common dolphin ( Delphinus capensis ) |
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| Gray , 1828 |
The long-snouted common dolphin ( Delphinus capensis ) is a species of dolphin that was previously considered a subspecies of the common dolphin ( Delphinus delphis ), but is now recognized as a separate species due to recent morphological and molecular biological studies. The species occurs in two subspecies, the long-snouted common dolphin ( Delphinus capensis capensis ) and the Indo-Pacific common dolphin ( Delphinus capensis tropicalis ), of which the latter has been described by some authors as a separate species.
features
Outwardly, long-snouted common dolphins differ from the common dolphin mainly in their longer, narrower snout and flatter melon . The head is slender and the snout is set off from the melon by a clear notch. The body drawing is variable. Males reach a length of 2.0 to 2.54 meters, females are 1.9 to 2.2 meters long. The weight of adults is 80 to 150 kilograms, with the males being slightly heavier. The body drawing is complex and variable. The muzzle is dark up to the eye spot, from it to the flippers there is a wide dark stripe. Another dark stripe usually runs from the eye to the anus . The light coloration of the breast continues in an ocher-colored spot on the flanks, which, unlike the common dolphin, does not continue above the eyes and only connects to a narrow line above the eyes and snout, which can also be missing, so that the face appears darker. The back has a dark cape that runs downwards in a V-shape below the fin , so that the chest patch together with the pale gray tail stalk forms an hourglass pattern. In contrast to the common dolphin, the fin and flipper usually have no white. Overall, the color is weaker than that of the common dolphin. Young animals are 0.8 to 1 meter long at birth and weigh about 10 kilograms. Their snout is shorter and the color is weaker, so that they can hardly be distinguished from young common dolphins.
The Indo-Pacific common dolphin has an even longer, narrower snout.
Occurrence
Long-nosed common dolphins occur in warm temperate and tropical oceans in several, probably disjoint , i.e. non-contiguous areas. D. c. capensis is found in the Atlantic on the east coast of South America and the west and south coasts of Africa as well as in the northern Pacific off Japan, Korea and northern Taiwan and off California, Central America and Peru. D. c. tropicalis is found in the Indo-Pacific from the Red Sea to western Taiwan. The distribution areas of the subspecies may overlap on the Chinese coast.
Way of life
The species prefers warmer, shallower waters than the common dolphin. Long-snouted common dolphins live in groups of usually 10 to 30 animals that can come together to form larger groups. The main food is fish, squid and krill .
Keeping in human care
A long-nosed common dolphin rescued in 1984 lived at SeaWorld San Diego for 9 years. There he successfully mated several times with female bottlenose dolphins, resulting in three hybrid cubs, one of which has survived to this day (2020), which reproduced with male bottlenose dolphins, which proves that hybrids of Tursiops truncatus and Delphinus capensis are fertile.
literature
- Hadoram Shirihai, Brett Jarrett: Marine Mammals . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-440-11277-9 , pp. 174-176 .
- Long-nosed Common Dolphin website on the Convention on Migratory Species website
Individual evidence
- ↑ JE Heyning, WF Perrin: Evidence for two species of common dolphins (genus Delphinus) from the eastern North Pacific . In: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History: Contributions in Science . tape 442 , 1994, pp. 1–35 (English, full text (PDF; 3.4 MB)).
- ↑ SE Kingston, PE Rosel: Genetic differentiation among recently diverged delphinid taxa determined using AFLP markers . In: Journal of Heredity . tape 95 , 2004, pp. 1–10 (English, full text ).
- ↑ Delphinus capensis in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010.
- ↑ Ceta Base | Captive Cetacean Database - Cetaceans • SeaWorld (All Locations) • United States. Retrieved June 4, 2020 (American English).
