Animal Unique | White Beaked Dolphin | White beaked dolphin is a mammal belonging to the family Delphinidae (dolphins) in the suborder Odontoceti (toothed whales). This species occurs mainly in continental shelf water depths between 50 m and 100 m and the 200 m rarely. The White beaked dolphin is endemic in the North Atlantic Ocean and is found in a band stretching across the ocean from Cape Cod to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River and south of Greenland in the west, in the center and around Iceland on the west of northern France to Spitzbergen.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Subclass: Eutheria
Order: Cetacea
Suborder: Odontoceti
Family: Delphinidae
Genus: Lagenorhynchus
Species: L. albirostris
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Subclass: Eutheria
Order: Cetacea
Suborder: Odontoceti
Family: Delphinidae
Genus: Lagenorhynchus
Species: L. albirostris
White beaked dolphin have a stocky body and vary in color from the species. Generally, these dolphins are light gray to whitish in color with distinctive markings on their bodies, such as a lighter gray stripe, a gray-brown stain, or a white chevron-shaped line in front of their dorsal fins near its blowhole . These markings may also cover their eyes. They have mouths, sometimes mottled with white light to dark gray spots, or entirely light gray in color. Their caudal fin (tail), tail and fins are generally dark gray, but sometimes have white markings at the base of their fins and the underside of their tail fin. They are almost white on the belly (bottom) sides. Juvenile White beaked dolphins have hair on their upper lip, and adults have 4-6 follicles on each side of their upper jaw.
White beaked dolphin is a large dolphin, curved dorsal fins are rounded at the ends. Their dorsal fins and flukes seem to decrease in size and mature dolphins. Their fins are large and can reach up to 19% of the total adult body length. The tail stock (the ash of their tail) of white-beaked dolphin is tapered unlike that of the Atlantic white sided dolphins, although the two species are often mistaken for each other because of their similar color.
White beaked dolphins typically form groups of 1-35 individuals, although occasionally schools of several hundred animals have been reported. The largest school observed contained about 1,500 dolphins, but groups of this size are rare and are believed to consist of several smaller subgroups. White beaked dolphins known to ride bow waves and stern behind the ride. They are agile swimmers and are often seen jumping out of the water.
The population, breeding pattern, and life expectancy of the dolphin are all unknown, although most sources estimate several hundred thousand individulas, more densely populated in the eastern North Atlantic than the west. White-beaked Dolphins are acrobatic and social animals. They will often ride the bow wave of high-speed boats and jumped away from the surface of the sea. The white-beaked dolphin is a social feeder and is often seen feeding with Orca, Fin, Humpback and whales, dolphins and other species.
Animal Unique