Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins (Stenella frontalis) are found through­out the At­lantic Ocean at lat­i­tudes be­tween 50 de­grees North and 25 de­grees South. They are most com­monly ob­served in coastal wa­ters, but also move into deeper wa­ters.

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins are found in coastal re­gions of both the west­ern and east­ern At­lantic Ocean. Their dis­tri­b­u­tion in­cludes wa­ters along the east coast of Canada and the United States, the Gulf of Mex­ico, the Caribbean Sea, and wa­ters along the east coast of cen­tral and south Amer­ica, as far south as Uruguay. Their dis­tri­b­u­tion also in­cludes the wa­ters along the west coast of Africa, as far south as An­gola, and wa­ters around Oceanic is­lands, such as St. He­lena, the Azores, and the Ca­nary Is­lands. At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins are ab­sent in the Mediter­ranean Sea and west­ern South At­lantic. (Jef­fer­son, et al., 2008; Per­rin, et al., 2009; Reeves, et al., 2002; Shir­i­hai and Jar­rett, 2006; Thewis­sen, et al., 2002)

• Biogeographic Regions
• atlantic ocean
  • native

Habi­tat

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins are found in trop­i­cal and warm, tem­per­ate wa­ters of the At­lantic Ocean. Their dis­tri­b­u­tion pri­mar­ily in­cludes shal­low wa­ters along the con­ti­nen­tal shelf and upper con­ti­nen­tal slope. How­ever, some pop­u­la­tions are found in deeper wa­ters far­ther from land.

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins are most com­mon at depths of 200 m, al­though pop­u­la­tions far­ther from land may in­habit wa­ters as deep as 1000 m. Some pop­u­la­tions near the Ba­hamas are found in shal­low sand flats only 6 to 12 m deep. At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins spend most of their time at depths of less than 10 m, but may dive to depths of 40 to 60 m for up to 6 min­utes when for­ag­ing for food. (Jef­fer­son, et al., 2008; Per­rin, et al., 2009; Reeves, et al., 2002; Shir­i­hai and Jar­rett, 2006; Thewis­sen, et al., 2002; Viri­cel and Rosel, 2014)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• saltwater or marine

• Aquatic Biomes
• pelagic
• coastal

• Range depth

  6 to 1000 m

  19.69 to 3280.84 ft

• Average depth

  200 m

  656.17 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins have a three-part body col­oration and a two-part spot­ting pat­tern. They have dark gray dor­sal col­oration with white spots, light gray lat­eral col­oration with white spots, and white ven­tral col­oration with dark spots. New­born calves and ju­ve­niles are not spot­ted, de­vel­op­ing spots first on their ven­tral sides around wean­ing age, from 2 to 6 years old. As At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins ma­ture, they de­velop more spots on their lat­eral and dor­sal sides. At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins can be heav­ily spot­ted or sparsely spot­ted and the amount of spot­ting typ­i­cally varies be­tween pop­u­la­tions de­pend­ing on their lo­ca­tion. For ex­am­ple, in­di­vid­u­als lo­cated in off­shore and/or tem­per­ate areas have lit­tle or no spot­ting and tend to be smaller in size, with skulls mea­sur­ing 360 mm long on av­er­age. Con­versely, in­di­vid­u­als in coastal pop­u­la­tions tend to have in­tense spot­ting and are larger in size, with skulls mea­sur­ing 461 mm long on av­er­age. At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins have white-tipped beaks mea­sur­ing 90 to 140 mm in length and have a dis­tinct crease, called a melon, be­tween their beaks and the rest of their heads. Their dor­sal fin is curved and 160 to 250 mm in length, and lo­cated near the mid­dle of their backs. At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins have 32 to 42 teeth in their upper jaws and 30 to 40 teeth in their lower jaws.

Adult males mea­sure up to 2.6 m in length and weigh as much as 140 kg, whereas fe­males mea­sure up to 2.29 m in length and weigh as much as 130 kg. New­borns are about 0.9 to 1.1 m in length, but new­born weights have not been recorded. (Jef­fer­son, et al., 2008; Per­rin, et al., 2009; Reeves, et al., 2002; Shir­i­hai and Jar­rett, 2006; Thewis­sen, et al., 2002)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Range mass

  110 to 143 kg

  242.29 to 314.98 lb

• Range length

  1.9 to 2.3 m

  6.23 to 7.55 ft

• Average length

  2.1 m

  6.89 ft

Re­pro­duc­tion

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins are polyg­y­nan­drous and usu­ally breed be­tween early spring and late fall. Mat­ing events typ­i­cally in­volve three or four males that pur­sue one fe­male. Males es­cort the fe­male they are fol­low­ing to the seafloor and fend off other male groups until the fe­male is ready to mate. Small groups of males ini­tially at­tract fe­male dol­phins with be­hav­iors such as syn­chro­nized swim­ming, vo­cal­iza­tions, and spe­cific pos­tures. The du­ra­tion of courtship be­hav­iors is un­known. The mat­ing strate­gies of At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins play a key role in shap­ing so­cial struc­ture by in­flu­enc­ing fe­male-male as­so­ci­a­tions. (El­liser and Herz­ing, 2014; Green, et al., 2015; Herz­ing, 1997; Melillo, et al., 2009)

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous)

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins are iteroparous, vi­vip­a­rous, re­pro­duce sex­u­ally, and ex­hibit in­ter­nal fer­til­iza­tion. Fe­males reach re­pro­duc­tive ma­tu­rity after 8 to 11 years. The age at which males reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity is cur­rently un­known, but is es­ti­mated to be at around 10 years old. At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins breed be­tween early spring and late fall. The ges­ta­tion pe­riod lasts 11 to 12 months and fe­males have only 1 off­spring per breed­ing sea­son. There are no records of mass at birth, but new­born calves are around 1/3 of the moth­ers size. Calves are de­pen­dent on their moth­ers for sev­eral years. They are con­sid­ered fully weaned at 3 to 5 years after birth, but they start catch­ing and eat­ing solid foods 6 to 10 months after birth. The calv­ing in­ter­val for At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins is 3 to 4 years, which means that fe­males may be preg­nant while still nurs­ing an older calf. Calves usu­ally stay with their moth­ers for around 3 years after birth. How­ever, if their mother does not be­come preg­nant in suc­ces­sive years, then calves may re­main par­tially de­pen­dent for up to 9 years after birth. (Archer and Robert­son, 2004; Green, et al., 2011; Herz­ing, 1997; Jef­fer­son, et al., 2008; Miles and Herz­ing, 2003; Reeves, et al., 2002)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  Atlantic spotted dolphins breed once yearly.

• Breeding season

  Between early spring and late fall

• Range number of offspring

  1 to 1

• Range gestation period

  11 to 12 months

• Average gestation period

  12 months

• Range weaning age

  36 to 60 months

• Range time to independence

  3 to 9 years

• Average time to independence

  3 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  8 to 11 years

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins ex­hibit ex­tended parental in­vest­ment in their off­spring. Al­though males do not specif­i­cally care for their own off­spring, they will oc­ca­sion­ally pro­tect fe­males who are preg­nant or have a young calf. Fe­males are re­spon­si­ble for feed­ing and pro­tect­ing their young, and new­borns rely on their moth­ers for learn­ing and de­vel­op­ment. Calves spend are en­tirely de­pen­dent on their moth­ers for around 3 years, dur­ing which time moth­ers teach their calves how to hunt. To do so, moth­ers will catch prey and re­lease it back into the sand. They then mo­tion to­wards the prey with their jaws and allow the calf to par­tic­i­pate in catch­ing the prey. Calves be­come fully de­pen­dent from their moth­ers be­tween 3 and 9 years after birth. (Ben­der, et al., 2009; Green, et al., 2011)

• Parental Investment
• precocial
• female parental care
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• extended period of juvenile learning

Lifes­pan/Longevity

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins have an av­er­age lifes­pan of 23 years in the wild. In cap­tiv­ity, they typ­i­cally live 1 year or less be­cause they often refuse to eat. (Per­rin, et al., 2009)

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  23 years

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  0 to 1 years

Be­hav­ior

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins are highly so­cial and are pre­sumed to be highly in­tel­li­gent. They are fast swim­mers and are often ob­served swim­ming fran­ti­cally around con­specifics. At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins are also ac­ro­batic and tend to leap out of the water and ride the waves cre­ates by the bows of ships.

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins are usu­ally found in groups, called pods, con­tain­ing 5 to 15 in­di­vid­u­als in coastal areas and closer to 50 in­di­vid­u­als in deeper wa­ters. They are known to in­ter­act with bot­tlenose dol­phins (Tur­siops trun­ca­tus) both play­fully and ag­gres­sively.

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins do not ap­pear to be mi­gra­tory. In the Ba­hamas, the same in­di­vid­u­als have been sighted in mul­ti­ple con­sec­u­tive years. (Dudzin­ski and Fro­hoff, 2008; Jef­fer­son, et al., 2008; Melillo, et al., 2009; Reeves, et al., 2002; Thewis­sen, et al., 2002)

• Key Behaviors
• natatorial
• motile
• sedentary
• social

Home Range

There is lim­ited in­for­ma­tion re­gard­ing home ranges of At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins. Re­search on bot­tlenose dol­phins (Tur­siops trun­ca­tus) has shown that they can travel 40 to 50 km in one day. It is pos­si­ble that At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins have sim­i­lar move­ment be­hav­iors. (Jef­fer­son, et al., 2008; Mann, et al., 2000)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins have com­plex meth­ods of in­traspe­cific com­mu­ni­ca­tion, using both vocal and non-vo­cal sig­nals that dif­fer de­pend­ing on con­text. At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins have a highly de­vel­oped sense of hear­ing and pro­duce sounds at high fre­quen­cies, from 0.1 to 18 kHz. They often com­mu­ni­cate using a se­ries of clicks, which can range in num­ber from 8 to 1,200 clicks in one con­tin­u­ous call.

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins do not pro­duce sound using vocal cords, but rather using a mass of fatty tis­sue in their fore­head, called a melon. They use three main types of vocal com­mu­ni­ca­tion: whis­tles, clicks, and burst pulsed sounds. Whis­tles are a com­mon form of com­mu­ni­ca­tion in most dol­phins, and are pri­mar­ily used for so­cial com­mu­ni­ca­tion and ex­cite­ment vo­cal­iza­tions. Dol­phins use clicks to nav­i­gate and ori­ent them­selves in their en­vi­ron­ment. Dol­phins pro­duce whis­tles using the right side of their mel­ons and pro­duce clicks using the left side. Dol­phins also use burst pulsed sounds for so­cial com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Other vo­cal­iza­tions, in­clud­ing squawks, syn­chro­nized squawks, screams, and barks are also as­so­ci­ated with con­tex­tual and so­cial be­hav­ior. Other sounds as­so­ci­ated with for­ag­ing and feed­ing be­hav­iors in­clude razor buzzes, trills, and up­swept whis­tles.

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins also use non-vo­cal com­mu­ni­ca­tion. They do not use many vi­sual sig­nals, due to lim­ited vis­i­bil­ity un­der­wa­ter. How­ever, they do emit bub­bles from their blow­holes to com­mu­ni­cate vi­su­ally. At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins also com­mu­ni­cate in­for­ma­tion using tac­tile stim­uli. They use their dor­sal fins, pec­toral fins, tails, bel­lies, ros­trums, and some­times the en­tire bod­ies to com­mu­ni­cate with each other. Phys­i­cal con­tact can have dif­fer­ent mean­ings de­pend­ing on the spe­cific re­la­tion­ship be­tween two in­di­vid­u­als. For ex­am­ple pec­toral fin rub­bing be­tween a fe­male and its calf is a method of calm­ing the calf, but pec­toral fin rub­bing be­tween un­re­lated dol­phins could mean that one needs help.

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins also com­mu­ni­cate using chem­i­cal stim­uli. For ex­am­ple, re­pro­duc­tive fe­males will emit spe­cific pheromones to com­mu­ni­cate their re­cep­tiv­ity to mat­ing. How ex­actly other dol­phins de­tect these pheromones is un­known, since their ol­fac­tory and gus­ta­tory senses are not nec­es­sar­ily well de­vel­oped. (Dudzin­ski and Fro­hoff, 2008; Herz­ing, 1996; Herz­ing, 2014; Mann, et al., 2000)

• Communication Channels
• tactile
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• echolocation
• chemical

Food Habits

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins eat a va­ri­ety of prey, and their diets vary de­pend­ing on ge­o­graphic lo­ca­tion. Prey items in­clude small, soft-bod­ied fish in­clud­ing flat­fishes (order Pleu­ronec­ti­formes), clu­peoids (fam­ily Clu­pei­dae), half­beaks (fam­ily Hemi­ram­phi­dae), and carangids (fam­ily Carangi­dae). They also eat squid and some other cephalopods (class Cephalopoda), as well as other in­ver­te­brates. At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins typ­i­cally hunt by trap­ping prey near is­lands or seamounts. How­ever, they are also known to fol­low trawl­ing ships and eat dis­carded or­gan­isms such as fish and shrimp. (Jef­fer­son, et al., 2008; Mann, et al., 2000; Per­rin, 2002; Per­rin, et al., 2009; Reeves, et al., 2002; Thewis­sen, et al., 2002)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • piscivore
  • molluscivore
  • eats other marine invertebrates

• Animal Foods
• fish
• mollusks
• aquatic or marine worms
• aquatic crustaceans

Pre­da­tion

Preda­tors of At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins in­clude sharks, orcas (Or­ci­nus orca), and hu­mans (Homo sapi­ens). The most com­mon preda­tors of At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins are tiger sharks (Ga­le­o­cerdo cu­vier) and bull sharks (Car­charhi­nus leu­cas).

Hu­mans kill At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins both in­ten­tion­ally for food and un­in­ten­tion­ally through fish­ing prac­tices. Dol­phins can get tan­gled in fish­ing equip­ment, which can cause them to drown or sus­tain se­ri­ous in­juries.

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins ex­hibit sev­eral anti-preda­tor be­hav­iors, which can vary de­pend­ing on the type of preda­tor and the con­di­tion of the in­di­vid­ual dol­phin. They have been ob­served hit­ting po­ten­tial preda­tors with their flip­pers or shak­ing their heads and emit­ting clouds of bub­bles. At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins may also face preda­tors di­rectly and flare their flip­pers in order to ap­pear larger and more in­tim­i­dat­ing. To com­mu­ni­cate the pres­ence of preda­tors to other mem­bers of their so­cial group, At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins re­peat­edly slap their tails against the sur­face of the water, which cre­ates a low, loud sound. They are also able to hear the high fre­quen­cies that orcas emit when hunt­ing and can thus avoid pre­da­tion. (Dudzin­ski and Fro­hoff, 2008; Dunn and Clar­idge, 2014; Melillo-Sweet­ing, et al., 2014; Reeves, et al., 2002; Thewis­sen, et al., 2002)

• Known Predators

  • Tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier)
  • Bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas)
  • Killer whales (Orcinus orca)
  • Humans (Homo sapiens)

Ecosys­tem Roles

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins prey on small, soft-bod­ied fish, squids, and other in­ver­te­brates. They also serve as prey for bull sharks (Car­charhi­nus leu­cas), tiger shark (Ga­le­o­cerdo cu­vier), and orcas (Or­ci­nus orca).

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins are known hosts of three par­a­sites. Bol­bo­soma vas­cu­lo­sum is found in their in­testines, Anisakis typ­ica is found in their stom­achs, and Phyl­loboth­rium del­phini is found in their blub­ber. (Colón-Llav­ina, et al., 2009; Dunn and Clar­idge, 2014; Melillo-Sweet­ing, et al., 2014; Mignucci-Gi­an­noni, et al., 1998; Per­rin, 2002)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins are a pop­u­lar re­search species due to their large brain size and so­cial be­hav­ior. They also serve as a source of eco­tourism in the Ba­hamas, where they are tol­er­ant of hu­mans swim­ming nearby. (Dudzin­ski and Fro­hoff, 2008; Jef­fer­son, et al., 2008)

• Positive Impacts
• ecotourism

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse eco­nomic ef­fects of At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins are listed as “data de­fi­cient” on the IUCN Red List, mean­ing that their con­ser­va­tion sta­tus can­not be cat­e­go­rized until more in­for­ma­tion is col­lected. They are listed under Ap­pen­dix II of CITES, which strictly reg­u­lates im­por­ta­tion or ex­por­ta­tion of in­di­vid­u­als and em­pha­sizes hu­mane treat­ment. At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins are also pro­tected by the Ma­rine Mam­mal Pro­tec­tion Act. They are not listed on any other na­tional or in­ter­na­tional con­ser­va­tion lists.

At­lantic spot­ted dol­phin pop­u­la­tions are most threat­ened by fish­ing and whal­ing prac­tices. There are still whal­ing groups that tar­get At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins. Fur­ther­more, At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins often for­age near the shore and some­times fol­low boats to catch dis­carded fish. This close as­so­ci­a­tion with ships and fish­ing areas re­sults in their ac­ci­den­tal cap­ture or en­tan­gle­ment in fish­ing equip­ment. As a re­sult, they ei­ther drown in fish­ing equip­ment or are shot or speared by fish­er­men. The num­ber of At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins that die due to en­tan­gle­ments or cap­tures is cur­rently un­known. (Dudzin­ski and Fro­hoff, 2008; Ham­mond, et al., 2012; Jef­fer­son, et al., 2008; Per­rin, et al., 2009; Reeves, et al., 2002; Roman, et al., 2013)

• IUCN Red List

  Data Deficient
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Data Deficient
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  Appendix II

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Kelsey Brimer (au­thor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Karen Pow­ers (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, April Tin­gle (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Emily Clark (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Cari Mc­gre­gor (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Jacob Vaught (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Galen Bur­rell (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects.

Ref­er­ences

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Ben­der, C., D. Herz­ing, D. Bjork­lund. 2009. Ev­i­dence of teach­ing in At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins by mother dol­phins for­ag­ing in the pres­ence of their calves. An­i­mal Cog­ni­tion, 12/1: 43-53.

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Donoghue, M., A. Wheeler. 1990. Save the Dol­phins. New York: Sheri­dan House Inc.

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Herz­ing, D. 1996. Vo­cal­iza­tions and as­so­ci­ated un­der­wa­ter be­hav­ior of free-rang­ing At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins, Stenella frontalis and bot­tlenose dol­phins, Tur­siops trun­ca­tus. Aquatic Mam­mals, 22/2: 61-79.

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Jef­fer­son, T., M. Web­ber, R. Pit­man, B. Jar­rett. 2008. Ma­rine Mam­mals of the World. Ox­ford, UK: El­se­vier.

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Melillo-Sweet­ing, K., S. Turn­bull, T. Gut­tridge. 2014. Ev­i­dence of shark at­tacks on At­lantic spot­ted dol­phins (Stenella frontalis) off Bi­mini, the Ba­hamas. Ma­rine Mam­mal Sci­ence, 30/3: 1158-1164.

Melillo, K., K. Dudzin­ski, L. Cor­nick. 2009. In­ter­ac­tions be­tween At­lantic spot­ted (Stenella frontalis) and bot­tlenose (Tur­siops trun­ca­tus) dol­phins off Bi­mini, the Ba­hamas, 2003-2007. Aquatic Mam­mals, 35/2: 281-291.

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