Behavior
You will most often see the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in small groups. They can have as few as 5 in them but 15 is more common. Other groups have close to 100 members in them though. They are very social with each other and with other species of dolphins they come into contact with. They hierarchy among these groups isn’t simple to understand though even through a great deal of observation.
Diet and Feeding
Both fish and squid make up the biggest part of the diet for these dolphins. They hunt at night time and have great techniques for getting large amounts of food to come to them. Then they work together to make a tight circle around it before consuming their prey. They will also consume crustaceans if necessary due to the fact that they eat large amounts of food daily.
Reproduction
This types of dolphin has two mating seasons – the spring and the summer. It is believed that in some areas where it is very warm they do mate all year long as long as there is enough food. It takes about 12 months for the offspring to be born after mating. The newborns can be close to 5 feet long and weigh about 50 pounds.
The mothers will feed the offspring milk for the first couple of years of life. The young stay with their mother longer than any other type of dolphin out there. Generally this time frame is close to five years. As a result the females will only mate every 4 to 6 years. This could one day be a problem if populations drop due to the slow reproduction rates. They have an extremely long life span in the wild of about 40 years.
(source:google/http://www.dolphins-world.com/)
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